Pushed and prodded by the Supreme Court, the State Bank of India (SBI), which had sought time until June 30, revealed telling data on electoral bonds Thursday — from donor details to parties that redeemed the bonds, including the unique alphanumeric codes that link donors to beneficiaries. A scrutiny of the data published by the Election Commission of India reveals that the top 10 of the total 487 donors to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party account for Rs 2,119 crore, which is 35 per cent of the party’s electoral bond kitty of Rs 6,060 crore encashed since April 2019, the largest amongst all parties. This data, published by ECI after SBI filed a compliance affidavit as directed by the top court, represents the largest disclosure regarding the controversial scheme that guaranteed absolute anonymity to donors. The scheme was called “unconstitutional” and scrapped on February 15 by the court. The data reveals that Donor Number 1 Future Games and Hotel Services Limited funded BJP only to the tune of Rs 100 crore; three-fourths of its Rs 1,368 crore booty was split almost equally between the Trinamool Congress (Rs 542 crore) and the DMK (Rs 503 crore). Donor Number 2 Megha Group emerged as the top donor for both the BJP and the Congress. Of the Rs 1,192 crore worth bonds purchased by the group, BJP got almost half at Rs 584 crore. This was more than five times that of Congress (Rs 110 crore). Four companies of the Kolkata-headquartered MKJ Group bought bonds worth Rs 617 crore — put together they are the third largest donor. The BJP received Rs 372 crore, more than half the total bond purchases by the group, which includes Madanlal Ltd, Keventer Food Park Infra Ltd, and Sasmal Infrastructure. The Congress Rs 161 crore, and the Trinamool Rs 47 crore. Eight companies of RPSG purchased bonds worth Rs 584 crore, making it the fourth highest donor. The Group’s four top donor companies — Haldia Energy (Rs 377 crore), Dhariwal Infrastructure (Rs 115 crore), Philips Carbon (Rs 35 crore) and Crescent Power (Rs 34 crore) together purchased bonds for Rs 561 crore. Of this, the Trinamool received Rs 419 crore, the BJP 126 crore and the Congress Rs 15 crore. Aditya Birla Group is the fifth largest donor overall with a total bond purchase value of Rs 553 crore. The top three donor companies of the Group — Essel Mining (Rs 225 crore), Utkal Alumina International (Rs 145 crore) and Birla Carbon (Rs 105 crore) accounted for bonds worth Rs 475 crore. Of this, Rs 245 crore went to the BJD and Rs 230 crore to the BJP. Next on the list is Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd, an associate company of Reliance Industries Ltd, which spent Rs 410 crore on bonds. Of this, the BJP received Rs 375 crore and the Shiv Sena Rs 25 crore. Vedanta Limited, the seventh largest buyer of bonds, spent Rs 401 crore. The BJP is the top beneficiary with Rs 227 crore while the Congress and the BJD received Rs 125 crore and Rs 40 crore, respectively. Four companies of the Bharti Group purchased bonds worth Rs 247 crore. The top donor, Bharti Airtel Limited, spent Rs 183 crore on bonds. Of this, the BJP received Rs 197 crore. Four Jindal companies donated Rs 192 crore in bonds. Jindal Steel and Power, the biggest buyer, spent Rs 123 crore. The BJD received the lion’s share of Rs 100 crore, while the Congress and the BJP received bonds worth Rs 20 crore and Rs 3 crore respectively. Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group, the tenth largest donor, donated Rs 184 crore through three companies. The biggest donor — Torrent Power Ltd — spent Rs 107 crore. Of this, the BJP received Rs 107 crore, while the Congress and the AAP got Rs 17 crore and Rs 7 crore, respectively. On Thursday, the ECI made public two sets of data, which comprised a list of 18,871 electoral bonds purchased, and 20,421 electoral bonds redeemed after April 12, 2019. Of these, the purchaser and recipient matched only for 18,741 electoral bonds, based on the unique alphanumeric number, and accounted for Rs 12,145.88 crore.
