Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR, a Coimbatore-based lottery firm, is the largest donor of electoral bonds, contributing over Rs 1,368 crore to political parties, as per the electoral bonds data published by the Election Commission of India. This information was sourced from the State Bank of India, in compliance with the deadline set by the Supreme Court of India.
The top 20 donors, which included big names such as multinational mining company Vedanta, Sunil Mittal’s telecommunications company Bharti Airtel, AV Birla group-promoted Essel Mining, DLF Commercial Developers, and others, collectively contributed more than Rs 5,800 crore, accounting to nearly 48% of the total bonds purchased.
Among political parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the highest share of electoral bonds, more than Rs 6,060 crore or nearly half of the total share of bonds.
Between 2019 and 2024, donors purchased over Rs 12,155 crore worth of electoral bonds and political parties encashed more than Rs 12,769 crore worth of these bonds during the same period.
The SBI has provided two separate sets of documents. The first contains the purchase details of each Electoral Bond. This includes the name of the purchaser of the bond, and the denomination of the bond purchased. The second set has the encashment details of the political parties which include the date of encashment, name of the political party and the denomination. However, the crucial data missing from both sets is the unique identification number against each purchase and encashment, This unique ID could potentially trace which donor contributed to which political party.
Donors who gave over 100 crores
Apart from Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR, 21 other companies donated over 100 crores to political parties.
Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL), known for working on large-scale infrastructure projects, was the second highest donor to political parties, with donations over Rs 966 crore.
Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited, registered in Mumbai and with two directors serving on the board of various Reliance Industries Ltd-promoted companies, donated Rs 410 crore, making them the third largest donor. However, in response to a questionnaire, a Reliance Industries spokesperson said: “Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd is not a subsidiary of any Reliance entity," The Hindu's, Business Line, reported.
This is followed by Haldia Energy Limited (Rs 377 crore), Vedanta Limited (Rs 375.65 crore), Essel Mining and Industries Limited (Rs 224.45 crore), MEIL’s Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited (Rs 220 crore), Bharti Airtel Limited (Rs 198 crore) and Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd. (Rs 195 crore), MKJ group of companies Rs 192 crore), among others.
Top Beneficiaries
Following the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which received over 47% of the share of electoral bonds, the All India Trinamool Congress emerged as the second largest donee, encashing over Rs 1,610 crores worth of electoral bonds.
At number 3 is Indian National Congress, receiving over Rs 1,422 crore from donors.
This was followed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (Rs 1,215 crore), Biju Janata Dal (Rs 776 crore), The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Party (Rs 639 crore), YSR Congress Party (Rs 337 crore), Telugu Desam Party (Rs 219 crore), among others.
On February 15 of this year, the Supreme Court declared the Union government's electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional and prohibited the issuance of fresh bonds. Following this, SC had issued an ultimatum to the State Bank of India to disclose the electoral bonds data by March 12. The court warned of potential contempt proceedings against the bank if it failed to comply with the directive. The ECI was then directed to publish the data on its website before March 15.
Introduced in 2018, the scheme permitted the State Bank of India to maintain confidentiality on the purchasers of electoral bonds. Under the scheme, neither the donors nor the political parties were required to disclose each other's identity. The scheme allowed an individual or a corporate entity to purchase an electoral bond in the denominations of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakhs and ₹ 1 crore and donate it to political parties of their choosing. Subsequently. the political parties could then use the funds at their discretion.