Electoral Bond Scheme Transparency Brings New Insights
The Election Commission of India (ECI) released data on electoral bonds on its website, following a Supreme Court order for transparency in political funding. This data offers a glimpse into the scheme’s activity from April 2019 to February 2024.
Key Findings:
- Top Donors: Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd, a lottery company, emerged as the biggest contributor with Rs 1,368 crore. Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL), an infrastructure giant, followed closely with Rs 966 crore.
- Company Donations: Companies dominated the donor list, with the top 20 contributing nearly half the total amount (Rs 5,945 crore) through electoral bonds.
- Individual Donors: Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal was the highest individual donor (Rs 35 crore), followed by Ms SN Mohanty (Rs 45 crore).
- New Companies: Interestingly, 28 companies that purchased bonds were incorporated after the scheme’s launch in April 2019.
- Minimum Capital Companies: Among companies with the minimum mandated capital (Rs 1 lakh), 43 participated in the scheme.
Political Parties:
The data reveals the parties that redeemed electoral bonds but doesn’t link donors to specific parties due to the scheme’s design. Major national and regional parties like BJP, Congress, and DMK are all listed.
Significance:
This data release is a significant step towards greater transparency in political funding. It allows for public scrutiny of the sources of donations received by political parties.
Point to be Noted:
The Supreme Court had declared the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional due to anonymity concerns. This data release pertains to the scheme’s operation before the verdict.
Granular data of Electoral Bond Scheme is uploaded on Election Commission website, you may please visit www.eci.gov.in to view the complete data.
