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After the Supreme Court’s decision to scrap electoral bonds last year, donations to political parties significantly increased through electoral trusts, as indicated by the electoral trust contribution reports released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the previous financial year. On February 15, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that the electoral board scheme was unconstitutional and ordered the banks to cease issuing bonds immediately.
Nearly three-fourths of the donations to the Prudent Electoral Trust, which has received the highest contribution, were made after the Supreme Court’s decision on February 15. Out of Rs 1,075.7 crore donated to the trust, Rs 797.1 crore was received following the court’s ruling.
The contribution to the Prudent Electoral Trust also increased almost three-fold compared to the previous year — it increased to Rs 1075.7 crore in the last financial year compared to Rs 363.16 crore the year before, according to the report.
The top contributors to the trust for the year 2023-24 included ArcelorMittal Nippon (Rs 100 crore), DLF (Rs 99.5 crore), Maatha Projects (Rs 75 crore), Maruti Suzuki (Rs 60 crore), and CESC (Rs 60 crore), according to the report. The highest donation through the trust went to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Rs 723.8 crore. This was followed by the Congress with Rs 156.35 crore, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) with Rs 85 crore, and YSR Congress with Rs 72.5 crore.
Another Rs 132.5 crore worth of donations came through Triumph Electoral Trust. Again, Rs 130 crore of the 132.5 total donated through the trust came in after February 15, according to the report. The total donation through the trust increased from just Rs 0.5 crore last year. The top contributors to the trust were Cholamandalam Investment with Rs 50 crore, CG Power Industrial with Rs 30 crore, and Coromandel International with Rs 25.5 crore. Of the total, Rs 127.5 crore went to the BJP, and the remaining Rs 5 crore went to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
The electoral trusts route is transparent on contributors and beneficiaries. Where there is only one contributor and one beneficiary of a particular trust, the public can know for sure who is funding whom. If there are multiple contributors and recipients, it cannot be specified which company is funding which party. Electoral bonds, on the other hand, were exempt from disclosure requirements. Anyone in the country could donate money to political parties anonymously through interest-free “bearer instruments”.
Rs 9 crore was donated through Jayabharat Electoral Trust as opposed to no donation the previous year. The donations were made by two companies — Lakshmi Machine Works (Rs 8 crore) and Super Sales India (Rs 1 crore). Both the donations came in September 2024. The contributions went to the BJP (Rs 5 crore), DMK (Rs 3 crore), and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Rs 1 crore).
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