Electoral bonds data released: ECI uploads details of buyers, parties on website

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday uploaded data on the purchase and encashment of electoral bonds by corporates & individuals and political parties respectively on its website.

The Supreme Court had given the ECI time till 5 pm, March 15 to upload the data on its website.

"It may be recalled that in the said matter, ECI has consistently and categorically weighed in favour of disclosure and transparency, a position reflected in the proceedings of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and noted in the order also," the ECI said in a statement on Thursday evening, while releasing the data.

Among the known corporates, Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Ltd bought Rs 398 crore worth of bonds, while Sunil Mittal's three companies together purchased a total of Rs 246 crore worth of bonds.

Steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal bought Rs 35 crore worth of bonds in his individual capacity. Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which has bagged contracts of several large infrastructure projects, bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore.

According to the data uploaded by the ECI, other notable buyers of electoral bonds include Spicejet, IndiGo, Grasim Industries, Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Apollo Tyres, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wines, Welspun, Sun Pharma, Vardhman Textiles, Jindal Group, Phillips Carbon Black Limited, CEAT Tyres, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ITC, Kaypee Enterprises, Cipla, Maruti Suzuki India, Hero MotorCorp, Ultratech Cement, IFB Agro Industries, and several Bajaj entities.

A day earlier, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar had assured that the ECI was committed to transparency and would release the data to the public in 'due time'.

As per available data on the funds raised by parties through electoral bonds, the BJP disproportionately benefitted from the controversial scheme.

Several other parties too received donations via electoral bonds, albeit in magnitudes much smaller than the BJP: other recipients include the Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party.

In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the ECI of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients.

(With PTI inputs)