Karnataka poll: Rs 970.50 cr worth electoral bonds raised

Electoral bonds worth Rs 970.50 crore were sold during the 26th edition of sale of the financial instrument in April as Karnataka goes to polls with parties encashing all the bonds except for Rs 15 lakh.

Since 2018 when the electoral bond came into being, there were 26 phases of sales, including the latest, during which bonds worth Rs 12,979.09 crore have been sold. The bonds which were not encashed was around Rs 24 crore and were transferred to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

According to information received through RTI by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired) for the 26th edition of bond sale between April 3 and 12, the SBI has sold 1,470 bonds out of which 923 bonds or 95.10% were of Rs 1 crore denomination. It also sold 468 bonds of Rs one lakh each, 69 bonds of Rs one lakh each and 10 bonds of Rs 10,000 each.

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Hyderabad branch recorded the highest sale of bonds worth Rs 335.30 crore followed by Kolkata Rs 197.40 crore and Mumbai branch Rs 169.37 crore. The Chennai branch sold bonds worth Rs 122 crore while the Bengaluru branch sold bonds worth Rs 46 crore.

When it came to encashing the bonds, the New Delhi branch was on the top with parties encashing bonds worth Rs 565.79 crore followed by the Kolkata branch where bonds worth Rs 186.95 crore were encashed.

In its reply to Batra, the SBI also said that 25 political parties have opened their account for the purpose of encashing electoral bonds till date. Accounts are being opened at branches after obtaining proper approval, it said.

Ruling BJP’s income rose by 154.82 per cent to touch Rs 1,917.12 crore in 2021-22 against the previous fiscal, with close to 54 per cent of it coming from the controversial electoral bonds, according to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). It said 55.09 per cent or Rs 1811.94 crore of the total donations received by BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress and NCP were through electoral bonds while four other national parties CPI(M), CPI, BSP and NPP did not receive any funds through this instrument.