The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday made data on electoral bonds public shared by the State Bank of India (SBI). The data has been shared by the ballot physique in two components on its website.
In compliance of Supreme Court’s instructions, the State Bank of India (SBI) offered the data pertaining to the electoral bonds to the ballot physique on March 12, 2024.
The high court docket had given the Election Commission time until 5 pm of March 15 to add the data on its website.
The ballot physique has put the small print on ‘Disclosure of Electoral Bonds submitted by SBI’ in two components.
According to the data uploaded by the ballot panel, the patrons of electoral bonds embody Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Vedanta Ltd., Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun, and Sun Pharma.
The events that redeemed electoral bonds embody the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party, in accordance with the data.
The names embody metal tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services, and Megha Engineering.
Future Gaming, which was probed by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2022, purchased electoral bonds value over Rs 1,350 crore beneath two totally different units of firms.
Among the recognized corporates, Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd purchased Rs 398 crore value of bonds, whereas Sunil Mittal’s three firms collectively bought a complete of Rs 246 crore value of bonds.
Steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal purchased Rs 35 crore value of bonds in his particular person capability. Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which has bagged contracts of a number of massive infrastructure tasks, purchased bonds value Rs 966 crore.
While many of the bonds have been issued within the title of political events, the donations made to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have been made within the title of ‘President, All India Congress Committee’ and ‘Adyaksha Samajvadi Party’.
Part 1, which covers 337 pages, mentions the names of the businesses and the quantity of every Electoral Bond that these firms have bought from the SBI. Part 2, which runs into 426 pages, accommodates the names of the political events which have obtained the bonds and the date of encashment of every bond.
In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed nameless political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the quantity donated by them and the recipients. Below are the small print of the electoral bonds data made public by the election fee on its website.
With inputs from PTI
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