Future Gaming, Airtel, ITC, M&M among top buyers of e-bonds

The Election Commission has uploaded the data of electoral bonds from State Bank of India on its website. Among those who buy electoral bonds are some Arab patriarchs and some who are not famous.
According to the data of the Election Commission website, the uncrowned king of steel Lakshmi Mittal, Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Aggarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Future Gaming and people and institutions of hotel services are the major buyers of electoral bonds. Were among.

Future Gaming had purchased electoral bonds worth more than Rs 1,350 crore in the names of two different companies.
Vedanta Limited bought bonds worth Rs 398 crore, while Sunil Mittal’s three companies together bought bonds worth Rs 246 crore.
Steel giant Lakshmi Niwas Mittal in its individual capacity bought bonds worth Rs 35 crore. Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which operates in the infrastructure sector, bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore.

Further, while most of the bonds have been issued in the names of political parties, the donations made to Congress and Samajwadi Party were made in the name of ‘President, All India Congress Committee’ and ‘President Samajwadi Party’.
Following the Supreme Court’s direction, SBI, the authorized seller of electoral bonds, had shared the data with the Election Commission on March 12.
The apex court had given time till 5 pm on March 15 to the Election Commission to upload the data on its website, but the Election Commission uploaded this data before the deadline.

The Election Commission has kept the details of electoral bonds shared by SBI in two parts, one part containing the list of purchasers and the other part containing the list of beneficiary parties.

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, State Bank of India (SBI) said that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of various denominations were purchased by donors between April 1, 2019 and February 15, 2024, of which 22,030 were received by political parties and received payment. Had taken. According to data uploaded by the Election Commission, buyers of electoral bonds also include SpiceJet, IndiGo, Grasim Industries, Piramal Group.
Torrent Power, 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, KP Enterprises, Cipla, and Those like UltraTech Cement are also among those who bought bonds.

Parties that have encashed electoral bonds include BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JD-S, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference . Apart from this, BJD, Goa Forward Party, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, JMM, Sikkim Democratic Front and Jana Sena Party have received the payment of electoral bonds.

In a judgment delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench had struck down the Centre’s electoral bond scheme. In this scheme, the names of those giving political donations were kept confidential.