Page 3 - Electoral Bond

Electoral bonds worth Rs 9.6 crore purchased by 33 entities expired

Before the Supreme Court declared the electoral bonds illegal, they were valid only for 15 days from the date of issue to be encashed

Electoral bond disclosures: Mapping the changing dynamics of donations

Donations have become less spread out than before

Only 8 Sensex companies disclosed political donations in five years

Bharti Airtel stood out as the only Sensex company that consistently made political contributions each year, in the past five financial years

Electoral bond disclosures: BJP gets lion's share from listed companies

70 per cent of electoral bond flows went to the saffron party

41 companies facing probe by central agencies in electoral bond list

Forty-one companies facing probe by the CBI, ED and the I-T Department gave Rs 2,471 crore to the BJP through electoral bonds, and Rs 1,698 crore of it was donated after raids by these agencies, civil society activists who challenged the poll funding scheme in the Supreme Court claimed on Friday. Addressing the media after the Election Commission made public a fresh data set of electoral bonds, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioners in the court, said at least 30 shell companies purchased electoral bonds worth over Rs 143 crore. He said 33 groups which have got 172 major contracts and project approvals from the government also made donations through electoral bonds. "They have got a total of Rs 3.7 lakh crore in projects and contracts, in exchange for Rs 1,751 crore electoral bond donations to the BJP," he alleged. Bhushan also claimed that 41 companies which faced raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the .

Electoral bond disclosures: Jalan group bonds well with political parties

Financial records of two group companies show that the donations gave are disproportionately high compared to the of the firms, at least in the years they purchased the bonds

Intention behind bringing electoral bonds scheme was good: Nitin Gadkari

Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said it is not possible to run a political party without funds and added the Centre had introduced the electoral bonds scheme, now struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in 2017 with a "good intention". The senior BJP leader said all political parties need to sit together and deliberate if the Supreme Court gives any further direction on the matter. He made the comments at an event organised by a media house in GIFT City near Gandhinagar. "When Arun Jaitely was (Union finance) minister, I was part of that discussion (regarding electoral bonds). No party can survive without resources. In some countries, governments fund political parties. There is no such system in India. Thus, we chose this system of financing political parties," said Gadkari on a question about electoral bonds. He noted the main intention behind introducing electoral bonds was that political parties get funds directly, but the names (of donors) are not ...

Electoral bond disclosures: Small, unrecognised parties reap benefits

Most unrecognized parties had disclosed their share of electoral bonds received as 'nil', as per the electoral bonds disclosure in digitised form on 17 March 2024

Political funding's troubling sinkhole

Electoral bonds echo an old colonial playbook, and unless those issues are addressed, they will remain a gateway to corruption

BJP biggest beneficiary of Aurobindo Pharma's Rs 52 cr electoral bonds

Aurobindo Pharma, one of whose directors was arrested in the Delhi liquor scam, had bought electoral bonds for a total of Rs 52 crore with more than half of it going to the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to data released by the Election Commission. The Hyderabad-based firm had purchased electoral bonds between April 3, 2021 to November 8, 2023 and Rs 34.5 crore was donated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rs 15 crore to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and Rs 2.5 crore to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The drug maker purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore on November 15, 2022 five days after one of its directors, P Sarath Chandra Reddy was arrested for involvement in money laundering linked to the controversial Delhi excise policy, which has been scrapped. Comments from the company could not be obtained. As per the Election Commission data, BJP encashed this sum on November 21, 2022. Last year in June, Reddy turned approver in the case after a Delhi court allowed him to

Bharti Airtel, subsidiary donated Rs 234 cr to BJP via electoral bonds

Bharti Airtel and its subsidiary Bharti Telemedia bought around Rs 235 crore of electoral bonds and donated all but about Rs 1 crore to the ruling BJP, according to data released by the Election Commission. Bharti Airtel donated nearly Rs 197.5 crore to BJP, Rs 50 lakh to J&K National Conference, and Rs 10 lakh to Rashtriya Janata Dal. Bharti Telemedia, which is a subsidiary of the Sunil Mittal-led telecom firm Bharti Airtel, donated bonds worth Rs 37 crore to BJP, the data showed. In all, the two Bharti Group entities donated about Rs 234 crore to BJP, via electoral bonds. A mail sent to Bharti Airtel for comments did not elicit a response. Meanwhile, in a sharp contrast to big corporate houses that gave large sums to political parties, IT companies in India donated just around Rs 15 crore to various political parties through electoral bonds, as per the data. In the IT pack, Cyient contributed the most - donating Rs 10 crore to BJP, while Zensar Technologies contributed Rs 3 ...

Electoral bonds data: Here's how much the BJP, Congress and TMC received

While BJP received the largest amount of corporate donations via electoral bonds, Congress ranked behind Trinamool Congress in terms of donations

Electoral bonds data: Here's a list of the biggest donors and beneficiaries

Lottery firm Future Gaming and Megha Infrastructure were the biggest purchasers of the electoral bonds scheme, while BJP and TMC were the largest beneficiaries

Company that's biggest electoral bond donor funded 10 state-level parties

Future Gaming and Hotel Services spread its bets across national and regional players

Firm gave BJP Rs 25 cr in donations after director's arrest: Bharadwaj

Senior AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday claimed that a pharmacy firm paid Rs 25 crore to the BJP through electoral bonds after its director was arrested in the excise policy case. Addressing a press conference here, Bharadwaj also said that there was a threat to the life of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday night. "It is being repeatedly said that there is threat to the life of Kejriwal who has been arrested without any evidence," Bharadwaj said. A Hyderabad-based Pharma company whose director was arrested by ED in the excise policy case paid Rs 25 crore in electoral bonds to the BJP in November 2022, he alleged. "So the money trail and proceeds of crime in this excise case are heading to the BJP," he said. The minister said there was no evidence of any money trail or proceeds of crimes against AAP and Kejriwal as was being charged. Bhar

Electoral bonds: Megha Engineering, Qwik Supply big donors for ruling BJP

The BJP, the biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds with donations worth over Rs 6,000 crore in the last four years of the scheme, got funds from several corporates and individuals, including Megha Engineering, Future Gaming, and Reliance-linked Qwik Supply. Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which won several contracts for infrastructure projects, donated Rs 584 crore to the BJP, Qwik Supply Rs 395 crore, and Future Gaming Rs 100 crore, according to data released by the Election Commission on Thursday. The BJP also got Rs 346 crore from Keventers Food Park, MKJ Enterprises and Madanlal Ltd -- three firms with the same Kolkata address, Vedanata contributed Rs 226 crore, and Haldia Energy Rs 81 crore. Vedanta was also a key contributor to the Congress with donations worth Rs 125 crore. The opposition party also received funds from Western UP Power and Transmission, MKJ Enterprises and Yashoda Super Speciality Hospitals. The BJP also got donations worth Rs 80 crore from Western UP Po

Electoral bonds: Future Gaming donates Rs 540 cr to TMC, Rs 509 cr to DMK

Future Gaming, the DMK's biggest donor and the top purchaser of electoral bonds, donated funds to the BJP and the Trinamool Congress as well among other parties through the now-scrapped bearer instruments, data submitted by SBI to the Election Commission showed on Thursday. The company, owned by 'Lottery King' Santiago Martin, donated at least Rs 285 crore till October 2022 to the Trinamool Congress, the ruling party of West Bengal. The BJP also got at least Rs 100 crore from Future Gaming, while the YSR Congress got over Rs 150 crore, as per a preliminary analysis of the data. The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha was also among the beneficiaries. As per an earlier disclosure by the DMK, it received Rs 509 crore from Future Gaming. The data was made public following a Supreme Court order.

Electoral bonds data: Qwik Supply gave Rs 385 cr to BJP, Rs 25 to Shiv Sena

Qwik Supply Chain Private Ltd, a little-known company with a registered address at Navi Mumbai's Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) and having links to Reliance Industries, gave Rs 395 crore to the BJP and Rs 25 crore to the Shiv Sena, data uploaded by the Election Commission showed Thursday. Qwik Supply, the third largest donor to political parities using electoral bonds, bought Rs 410 crore bonds between 2021-22 and 2023-24, and gave all but Rs 25 crore to the BJP. The amount of Rs 25 crore was given to the Shiv Sena in 2022. The company, which is described as a manufacturer of warehouses and storage units, gave no money any other political party, the data uploaded by the Election Commission showed. Electoral bond purchases and donated by Qwik Supply were behind Rs 1,368 crore of Future Gaming and Hotel Services -- another little-known lottery company -- and Rs 966 crore of Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infra. Honeywell Properties Private Ltd, another firm with a ...

Election Commission publishes electoral bond data with matching numbers

The 552 page list of parties that redeemed these bonds is of the duration April 12, 2019 to January 24, 2024. The EC said it has uploaded the data received from the SBI on "as is where is basis"

Needed: Solutions for political finance

As the apex court has ruled, the electoral bond scheme was not appropriate