Electoral Bonds: Who Paid Whom - The Complete Picture

After the Election Commission of India (ECI) revealed the electoral bond data as provided to them by State Bank of India (SBI) following a Supreme Court of India order, several secrets and details about quid pro quos on the now-scrapped election funding system by the Government of India have been uncovered. The latest data, released on Thursday, includes the disclosure of unique identifiers associated with each electoral bond, establishing a direct link between the purchaser and the recipient party. Earlier in the week, the Supreme Court had sternly instructed the SBI to disclose all information regarding the electoral bonds in its possession.

Every electoral bond has a special number linking the buyer and the party cashing it. The details of buyers and parties were revealed on March 14 in two lists. It is the third time that the SBI has revealed the electoral bond data, disclosing the bond numbers, making it easier to match donors and receivers.

The Timeline team has examined the data and reports analysing the electoral bonds, and has compiled these details:

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

As per the data released by the Election Commission of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the frontrunner in the encashment of electoral bonds. Between April 12, 2019 and January 24, 2024, the saffron party has encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 6,060.5 crore. It should be noted that this amount represents over 47.5 percent of the total bonds encashed during the period.

Megha Engineering is the top electoral bond donor of BJP. This Hyderabad-based infrastructure company has donated Rs 584 crore to the BJP. The firm has purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 966 crore during 2019 and 2023. This means Megha Engineering has donated almost 60 percent of the total bond purchases to the BJP.

QwikSupply, a little-known company, stands second in this list with a donation of Rs 395 crore. Notably, the firm was allegedly linked to the Reliance Group, and it is the third largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds. As per the data, QwikSupply purchased electoral bonds worth a total of Rs 410 crore. The firm has given money to only two political parties, the BJP and the Shiv Sena.

Companies of Kolkata-based industrialist MK Jalan also made huge contributions to the BJP. Firms including Madanlal Limited, MKJ Enterprises, Keventers Foodpark, and Sasmal together donated Rs 339.42 crore to the saffron party. Meanwhile, the Aditya Birla Group has donated ₹275 crore, and the Bharti Airtel Group has donated around ₹236 crore to the BJP. The party also received donations worth Rs 226 crore from the Vedanta group.

Santiago Martin”s Future Gaming has contributed Rs 100 crore to the BJP. By purchasing Rs 1,394 crore worth of electoral bonds, Santiago Martin is the biggest contributor. The BJP also got donations worth Rs 81 crore from Haldia Energy and donations worth Rs 80 crore from Western UP Power and Transmission Company. Industrialist Lakshmi Niwas Mittal has also made donations to the BJP worth Rs 35 crore.

Trinamool Congress (TMC)

Trinamool Congress (TMC) has surprisingly become the second largest receiver of electoral bonds and the party has got a total of Rs 1609.53 crore since April 2019.

In 2019, the party received Rs 70.08 crore while it in 2020 Rs 29.77 crore. The party’s electoral bond funding saw an increase in 2021 with a whopping Rs 330.94 crore. Then the subsequent years saw a continuous hike in the party’s funding with Rs 468.8 crore in 2022. The party received the biggest-ever bond in 2023 amounting to Rs 562 crore. In addition, so far in 2024, the party has received 130.4 crore.

Notably, Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming and Hotel Services was the biggest donor of the Trinamool Congress, constituting one-third of the total donation. The company’s 99 per cent of the contributions marked post 2021 assembly election of West Bengal, with a whopping Rs 541 crore out of the total Rs 543 Future Gaming provided.

Haldia Energy Private Limited, owned by one of Kolkata’s billionaires Sanjeev Goenka’s RPSG group provided Rs 281 crore to the Trinamool Congress, with its largest amount donated in 2023 worth Rs 95 crore. Dhariwal Infrastructure paid Rs 90 crore while Philips Carbon provided Rs 53 crore.

Avees Trading and Finance Private Limited paid the TMC a total of Rs 45.5. The Chennai Green Woods Private Limited donated TMC Rs 40 crore while Madhya Pradesh Waste Management Pvt Ltd donated Rs 6 crore.

Prarambh Securities, a stock brokering company paid Rs 38.75 crore in 2022 while IFB Agro industries which encountered hooliganism at its bottling plant in TMC MP’s constituency donated Rs 42 crore. The company’s sister firm Bengal Vipanan donated another Rs two crore.

Keventer Foodpark Infra Limited contributed Rs 144.5 crore in 2019 while MKJ Enterprises provided Rs 45.9 crore throughout 2021, 2022 and 2023 and these firms are to Mahendra Jalan, one of the industrialists in Kolkata.

Kolkata based Crescent Power donated Rs 33 crore and RPSG Ventures Rs 3 crore. Overall, RPSG Group contributed 28.7% of the total electoral bond donations received by the TMC.

Indian National Congress (INC or Congress)

The Opposition party Congress has received more than half of its total electoral bond in the year 2023. The top donors of the party were the Kolkata-based M.K Jalan group of companies and the mining giant Vedanta.

In the year 2019-2021, the grand old party has redeemed Rs 1,421.86 crore which will make up 11.14% of the total funding of all political parties through electoral bonds. This figures reveals that Congress is in the third position after Trinamool Congress and BJP. But if we consider the period since the inception of the scheme in March 2018, the Congress has received a total of Rs 1,952 crore. And this will place Congress in second place surpassing Trinamool’s total of Rs 1,705 crore.

As per the data released on March 21, the top single firm donor of the party is Vedanta (Rs 125 crore) and then followed by the Megha Engineering firm Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited (Rs 110 crore).  The third top donor of the party is MKJ Enterprises (Rs 69.35 crore).

While in terms of Conglomerates, the four Kolkata-based companies linked to industrialist M.K. Jalan contributed a total of Rs 138.55 crore. This year the party has redeemed the least compared to previous years. As per the data, the party has only encashed Rs 35 crore in 2024.

Another significant donor of the party was Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital. They have contributed Rs 64 crore. Similarly, the lottery group Future Gaming contributed Rs 50 crore through electoral bonds.

The best year for Congress in terms of encashment seems to have been 2023, when it received Rs 793 crore, out of which Rs 110 crore was from Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited, followed by Rs 54 crore from MKJ enterprises and Rs 53 crore from Avees Trading Finance Limited.

In the year 2019, the amount the Congress received through electoral bonds was Rs 99.54 crore. The largest amount was given to Congress by Keventer Foodpark at Rs 20 crore, followed by Rs 10 crore by Madanlal Limited. In the year 2020, when the country was under Covid-19 lockdown, Rs 4 crore, came from Shree Cements limited, founded in Rajasthan and headquartered in Kolkata. Another Rs 3 crore was given by the Jaipur-based Genus Power Infrastructure Limited.

In the post-pandemic year, Congress got Rs 123.92 crore. Overall, the tally in 2022 for Congress rose to Rs 289.36 crore. Vedanta Limited was again Congress’s largest donor with Rs 51 crore.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)

The DMK’s (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) saw a substantial increase in the share of electoral bond after the 2021 assembly election. Of the total 706 crore received by the party, only 106 was donated before its win in the 2021 assembly elections.

Reportedly, the main donor of DMK was Future Gaming and Hotel Service Pvt.Ltd., owned by Santiago Martin, also known as “Lottery King”. It has donated Rs 534 crore to the current incumbent party of Tamil Nadu, between April 2019 and November 2023. The party received electoral bond from Future Gaming from 2019-20 and 2022-23, taking up the position as the largest single donor of electoral bond.

As per the letter submitted by DMK MP and treasurer T. R. Balu to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the donors “did not strictly adhere to requirement of furnishing their details whenever they handed over the electoral bond to us”. The letter said that the party however was able to collect details on time to respond to the ECI’s call.

The details in the submission made by DMK to ECI showed that Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt. Ltd. Donated Rs 60 crore through electoral bond to the ruling party of Tamil Nadu between October 23- 29, 2020. Another amount of Rs 249 crore was donated to DMK between April 5, 2021 and January 1, 2022, as reported by media.

During the 2021-22 financial year, the Coimbatore based company has picked the electoral bond of Rs 309 crores to fund DMK. In 2022, another Rs 185 crore was donated to the party through electoral bond. It is said that in 2023, the company once again donated 40 crores to the party.

According the M. K. Stalin led party’s submission, the Future Gaming and Hotel Service Pvt. Ltd. Has donated Rs 534 crore to the party as electoral bond between 2020 and 2023.

Another company to donate to DMK was Mega Infrastructure Developers Private Limited. The company that is located in New Delhi’s Panchsheel Enclave donated Rs 105 crore between April 2019 and 2022. Other companies, which are seemingly dealing with cement manufacturing also donated a sum of Rs 19 crores to DMK through electoral bonds. Interestingly, Sun TV Network of Kalanidhi Maran was also featured in the list of donors to DMK, having made a one-time donation of Rs 10 crores in 2021-2022.

Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP or YSR Congress)

Out of the several firms across industries such as healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, realty and infrastructure developers, based in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have purchased electoral bonds worth crores that were encashed by several political parties. One of which the Andhra Pradesh-based regional party of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP).

Led by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress party is one of the top five regional parties that received funding through electoral bonds. Out of the five, both DMK (Tamil Nadu) and YSRCP (Karnataka) are the ruling parties.

Between April 2019 and September 2023, the YSR Congress party received Rs 276 crore through electoral bonds. By February this year, YSRCP’s political funding increased to Rs 337 crore.

The biggest donor of electoral bonds, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crores. Out of the staggering amount, the Coimbatore based firm donated at least Rs 150 crore to YSR Congress. The lottery company headed by “lottery king” Santiago Martin donated the huge amount to the ruling party of Karnataka, where interestingly, lottery is banned. According to a report in The News Minute, a two-member committee was formed in the state to explore the feasibility of approving state-run casinos and lottery.

Infrastructure developer Megha Group turned out to be the largest purchaser from the region. Through several group companies, Megha Group purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 1,186. Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL), popularly known as Megha, donated Rs 37 crore to the party.

The firm behind the collapse of Uttarkashi’s Sikyara tunnel in 2023, Navayuga Engineering Company Limited donated over Rs 45 crores to the regional party.

A well-known pharma firm in Hyderabad called Natco Pharma purchased bonds worth Rs 69 crore, out of which Rs 3 crore was encashed by the YSRCP.

Several Greenko firms bought electoral bonds worth Rs 117 crore. YSR Congress encashed an amount of Rs 55 crore from this donation. The Hyderabad-based green energy firm bought electoral bonds through its 44 companies.

Yashoda Super Specialty Hospital, the ranking 12 in the list of highest donors, donated Rs 17 crore. Three hospital chains operate within Ghaziabad and Hyderabad. However, the hospital management denies making any donations. The hospital has bought bonds worth 162 crore.

Sri Krishnan Infrastructures donated over Rs 2 crores. Madhya Pradesh Waste Management PR donated Rs 25 lakhs. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Limited donated Rs 7 crore. Mytrah Engineering Pvt. Ltd, a renewable energy player, donated Rs 15 crore. NCC Limited donated Rs 20 crores. Aurobindo Pharma Limited, to the Delhi liquor scam, donated over Rs 5 crore. Sandhya Constructions and Estates Pvt Ltd donated Rs 13 crores.

Electoral Bonds Purchase Details by Companies and Individuals by timelinedailyofficial on Scribd

Other parties

According to the data from the inception of the electoral bonds, Naveen Patnaik”s BJD recieved Rs 1019.5 crore while Samajwadi Party encashed Rs 14.1 crore. Shiv Sena recieved Rs 227.4 crore and JD(U) managed to get Rs 24 crore. When NCP recieved Rs 65.3 crore, BRS, AIADMK, RJD, TDP and JMM recieved Rs 1,408.2 crore, Rs 6.1 crore, Rs 73.5 crore, Rs 320.7 crore, and Rs 13.5 crore respectively. The data says National Conference (Rs .5 crore), JDS (Rs 89.8 crore), SAD (Rs 7.3 crore), SKM (Rs 36.5 crore), SDF (Rs 6 crore) and Janasena (Rs 21 crore) have also recieved funds from electoral bonds.

BRS held a mere 0.8% share of lawmakers but garnered a significant 8.5% share of bond funds. In contrast, Trinamool”s share of 10.4% in bond funds starkly exceeded its 4.9% share of lawmakers. Likewise, BJD acquired 6.2% of the total bond funds despite constituting only 2.6% of lawmakers.

It”s noteworthy that parties such as the Left and BSP, representing a collective 7.6% of lawmakers, received no funding through electoral bonds.

However, the left parties (CPI-M and CPI) had announced earlier that they will not be accepting electoral bonds for their political activities.

Major highlights

• From April 2019, 15 companies listed in the Nifty 50 index purchased electoral bonds. Among these, eight are also listed in the BSE Sensex. These Nifty 50-listed companies collectively redeemed electoral bonds amounting to Rs 646 crore, with the Sensex-listed ones accounting for nearly half at Rs 337 crore. Notably, the BJP alone cashed in bonds worth Rs 521 crore from these 15 companies, constituting 81% of the total. Both Nifty 50 and Sensex represent top companies in the Indian stock market, spanning various sectors.
• Navayuga Engineering Company Limited, responsible for the Uttarkashi”s Silkyara tunnel collapse in November 2023, donated Rs 55 crore to the BJP in 2019 and 2022. The company purchased 55 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each.
• Some companies bought many times more worth electoral bonds than their declared profits. For example, West Bengal-based FMCG company Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd donated over 150 times its profit in the financial year 2019-20, with the majority going to the BJP. Madanlal Ltd, registered at the same address as MKJ Enterprises, purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 185 crore in 2019. 95 percent of these bonds were donated to the BJP, while the remaining 5 percent, amounting to Rs 10 crore, went to the Congress. Interestingly, its profit for FY 2019-20 was Rs 1.84 crore, indicating the firm donated over 100 times its profit to political parties through poll bonds, a The Quint analysis shows..
• Five days post the arrest of P Sarath Reddy, Aurobindo Pharma”s director, by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged irregularities in the Delhi government’s liquor policy, the company contributed Rs 5 crore in electoral bonds to the BJP, and interestingly, he then turned approver. He was released from jail, and later he bought another set of electoral bond worth Rs 25 crores and BJP encashed these bonds.
• Pharma and healthcare firms collectively purchased electoral bonds worth hundreds of crores for the BJP, the BRS, and the Congress party. An analysis of 35 pharmaceutical companies, by The Wire, shows that many donors are members of influential pharma associations, such as the IDMA and IPA, known for their substantial influence on government policies, particularly regarding drug regulation and pricing.
• Among donations from top firms raided by agencies, BJP received 30%, with Rs 1,386 crore out of Rs 4,077 crore donated by the top 10 donors under investigation. Trinamool Congress (TMC) received Rs 954 crore, while DMK received Rs 563 crore, a The Quint analysis says.
• An analysis by BusinessLine of the data reveals a discrepancy: some bonds encashed by political parties lack a corresponding donor name. Out of 1,679 bonds worth 7623.2 crore encashed by various political entities, there was no matching donor name for a portion of them. Among these, the BJP encashed bonds valued at 466 crore, the Congress around 870 crore, and the Trinamool Congress about 17 crore. Notably, all bonds lacking donor mapping were encashed on April 12 and 25, 2019.

Electoral Bonds Redemption Details by Political Parties by timelinedailyofficial on Scribd