Electoral bond donors & beneficiaries: Revealing the links

Delhi/Mumbai/Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the biggest amount from a single donor, followed by The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), an analysis of 22 entities who donated ₹100 crore or more via electoral bonds showed. The BJP received ₹584 crore from Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd, while Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd donated ₹542 crore to AITC and ₹503 crore to DMK.

While the BJP is in power at the Centre, AITC and DMK lead governments in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively.

Megha Engineering, the second biggest donor to political parties through electoral bonds, has bagged several infrastructure projects, including the ambitious Zojila tunnel linking Srinagar and Leh. The company also donated to other parties, but the amounts were small. Coimbatore-headquartered lottery services firm Future Gaming, which is the top donor, donated only 7.3% of its total payouts to the BJP and 3.7% to the Indian National Congress.

Overall, 11 of these 22 companies donated more to the BJP than any other party. The BJP, which has strengthened its political position in the past decade under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, received nearly half of the total donations of ₹12,155.5 crore.

Qwik Supply Chain Pvt. Ltd donated the fourth biggest amount of ₹375 crore to the BJP. Vedanta Ltd emerged as the biggest donor for Congress with ₹125 crore.

The Supreme Court's crucial judgement last month declaring the electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional opened the lid on details kept away from the public eye so far. The first dataset on donors and political parties was released on 14 March in two separate lists, but unique bond numbers that establish the link between donors and political parties were not disclosed then. The Supreme Court criticized State Bank of India for not disclosing all details, and asked it to do so by Thursday.

www.howindialives.com is a database and search engine for public data.