Election Commission Releases Fresh Data on Political Funding via Electoral Bonds
In a significant move, the Election Commission (EC) of India has made public new data pertaining to political funding through electoral bonds. This release follows the submission of details by political parties to the Supreme Court in sealed covers, specifically covering the period preceding April 12, 2019. The EC, in a statement, announced that it has received both physical copies and a digitized record of this data from the Registry of the Supreme Court, which has now been uploaded onto the EC’s website for public access.
This development comes hot on the heels of the EC’s announcement of the dates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, which are set to take place in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. The newly disclosed documents contain raw information such as the date of issuance, denominations, number of bonds, issuing State Bank of India (SBI) branch, as well as dates of receipt and credit. Notably, the unique numbers of the bonds have not been disclosed.
In response to this release, the Trinamool Congress has reached out to the SBI, seeking the unique numbers of the bonds to ensure compliance with the Supreme Court’s directives. Conversely, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has opted not to make such a request and has provided raw data instead.
Several political parties, including the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), have stated that they did not receive any donations via electoral bonds. However, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) of Tamil Nadu reportedly received a substantial amount of ₹656.5 crore, including a notable contribution from Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming.
The Congress has indicated its intention to release raw data provided by the SBI, with its Goa unit disclosing a donation of ₹30 lakh from VM Salgaocar, a company based in Vasco da Gama.
On the other hand, the BJP’s Tripura unit and the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) West Bengal unit have declared that they did not receive any donations via electoral bonds. Meanwhile, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), now known as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), received ₹230.65 crore in bonds from 2018 to 2019.
Karnataka’s Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) has mentioned notable donors such as Embassy Group, Infosys, and Biocon.
Electoral bonds have long been a key method of political funding, allowing for anonymous donations through certificates purchased from the SBI. However, the Supreme Court’s recent declaration of the scheme as unconstitutional has brought significant attention to the issue, with concerns raised about transparency and accountability in political financing.
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), more than half of all donations received by political parties since 2018 came in the form of electoral bonds. Nonetheless, the lack of a clear mapping of electoral bond buyers to recipients has left questions unanswered regarding which individuals and corporate entities are funding which political parties.
