Election Commission Makes Details Of Electoral Bonds Public

The Election Commission of India made the additional data on electoral bonds public on Sunday. These data were earlier submitted in sealed covers to the Supreme Court. Following the apex court ruling, the ECI has now made it available to the public.

These new details are believed to be pertaining to the period before April 12, 2019. As per the new details, the BJP has encashed an electoral bond totaling Rs 6,986.5 crore with a maximum of Rs 2,555 crore being received in 2019-20. The Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore through electoral bonds, the second largest after BJP.

The Indian National Congress has redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds.

The political parties have earlier filed data on electoral bonds in sealed covers as directed by the Supreme Court’s interim order dated April 12, 2019.
The information given by the political parties included details of the donations received by the party through electoral bonds, full particulars of the amount of each bond, full particulars of the credit received against each bond including the particulars of the bank account from which the amount has been credited with date of each credit.

The poll panel in its statement said, “Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court”s order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website”.

Earlier, the apex court directed the SBI to disclose the details of the bonds to the Election Commission.