NEW DELHI, 14 Mar: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday made the data on electoral bonds public.
Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India had shared the data with the poll panel on 12 March.
The top court had given the ECI time till 5 pm of 15 March to upload the data to its website.
The ECI has put the details on ‘Disclosure of Electoral Bonds submitted by SBI’ in two parts.
According to the data uploaded by the poll panel, the buyers of electoral bonds include Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Vedanta Ltd, Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun, and Sun Pharma.
The parties that redeemed electoral bonds include the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party, according to the data.
In a landmark verdict delivered on 15 February, 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.
BJP misused central agencies to garner Rs 400 cr through electoral bonds: Cong ?The Congress on Thursday alleged that the BJP has misused central agencies like the ED and the CBI to garner Rs 400 crore through electoral bonds from 45 companies after raids on them, and demanded that it should come out with a white paper on its finances if it cares about democracy.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge cited media reports saying that fresh investigations have revealed that 15 more companies donated to the BJP after raids were conducted on them by central probe agencies.
“Was it blackmail, extortion, loot and coercion to get more donations? A fresh investigation shows 15 more companies donated to BJP after ED, CBI, IT raids, making it a total of 45 companies paying BJP nearly Rs 400 crore,” Kharge alleged in a post on X.? ?”According to reports, four shell companies also funded BJP. Dictatorial Modi government has frozen Congress party’s bank accounts, while it extracts money by using central agencies,” he alleged.
The Congress chief claimed that the BJP used “unconstitutional and illegal electoral bonds to pad its loot chest,” and “manipulated” electoral trusts to “increase its donation loot” by 10 times.
“If BJP is bothered about ‘Mother of Democracy’, then it should bring a white paper on its own finances, through an independent investigation,” Kharge demanded.
He cited some media reports that claimed that 15 more donors of the BJP include four shell firms, 11 companies that faced central action and that 30 firms which donated Rs 335 crore to the BJP were also stung by the IT and the ED.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday announced sharing details of electoral bonds “in time” and asserted that the commission believes in complete transparency.
Kumar, who ended his nationwide visits ahead of the Lok Sabha election schedule announcement, said also that the poll body is ready to hold assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections in the union territory.
The State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased by donors between 14 April, 2019 and 15 February this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties. (PTI)
