The Election Commission on Sunday revealed second list of the declarations received from political parties on electoral bonds on Sunday. These relate to the information given to the Supreme Court in sealed covers and include declarations by recognised national and state parties and other unrecognised parties on the details of bonds received by them. Top buyers of electoral bondsThe name of Future Gaming and Hotel Services has emerged as the top buyer of electoral bonds. Through this, this company donated Rs 509 crore to the ruling party DMK of Tamil Nadu. This information came to light on Sunday from the Election Commission data. Future Gaming accounts for over 77 per cent of the total receipts from electoral bonds of Rs 656.5 crore reported by the DMK.The owner of this company, lottery king Santiago Martin, is under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate. Most political parties have not disclosed the names of donors. Therefore, it is not known who were the beneficiaries of the remaining Rs 859 crore bonds purchased on behalf of Future Gaming.This disclosure is part of the details of data related to a total of 523 recognized and unrecognized political parties made public by the Election Commission on the orders of the Supreme Court. Last week, another data was published by the Election Commission, which was based on information presented by the State Bank of India.BJP got this much in electoral bondsThe data initially presented by SBI pertained to the period from April 12, 2019 till the SC struck down the bonds last month. The latest disclosure is based on announcements made by various political parties in November last year on the bonds encashed by them since the scheme was launched in early 2018.This does not include the last few installments. BJP received the highest amount of Rs 6,986.5 crore through the electoral bond scheme since its implementation in 2018. It was followed by West Bengals ruling party Trinamool Congress (Rs 1,397 crore), Congress (Rs 1,334 crore) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (Rs 1,322 crore).According to the data, Odishas ruling party BJD received Rs 944.5 crore. After this, DMK redeemed bonds worth Rs 656.5 crore and Andhra Pradeshs ruling party YSR Congress redeemed bonds worth about Rs 442.8 crore. According to an earlier report compiled by NGO, Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore were sold from March 2018 to January 2024. Combining both the figures, it is estimated that the BJP has received a total amount of Rs 7,700 crore during the entire period of the scheme.Megha Engineering- second largest buyer of electoral bondsAccording to data released on Sunday, Janata Dal Secular received bonds worth Rs 89.75 crore, including Rs 50 crore from Megha Engineering, the second largest buyer of electoral bonds. Future Gaming Company was the biggest buyer of electoral bonds with Rs 1,368 crore, of which about 37 per cent went to the DMK. Other major donors to DMK include Megha Engineering with Rs 105 crore, India Cements with Rs 14 crore and Sun TV with Rs 100 crore. Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore through electoral bonds and is the second largest recipient after BJP.Although the Aam Aadmi Party did not give the cumulative figure of its donations, SBI data showed that it had received Rs 65.45 crore. After the information given to the Election Commission, it is estimated to get Rs 3.55 crore more, taking the total donation to Rs 69 crore.CPI(M) had announced that it will not receive funds through electoral bonds, while AIMIM, INLD and BSP have reported not receiving any amount. Following the revelations, opposition parties have termed electoral bonds as legalizing corruption, while the BJP said abolishing bonds could lead to the return of black money into politics.Top donarsApollo Group, India Cements, Ramco Cements and Triveni are among the top donars. Aam Aadmi Party received Rs 3 crore from Bajaj Group and Rs 1 crore from Torrent Pharmaceuticals. JDU discloses Bharti Airtel and Shree Cement as donars, contributing a total of Rs 3 crore. San Beverages, SK Traders, and BS Traders emerge as top donars to the Samajwadi Party, issuing electoral bonds from April 4 to May 7, 2019. Future Gaming and Services and Megha Engineering and Infra as top donars to DMK through Electoral Bonds, with Future Gaming contributing Rs 509 crore and Megha Engineering Rs 105 crore. ADMK received a total of Rs 6.05 crore in EBs out of which Rs 5 crore came from Chennai Super Kings. JDS has received Rs 50 crore from MEIL and Rs 22 crore from Embassy Group. Parties who have not received electoral bondsThe Communist Party of India (Marxist) among national parties, and the Community Party of India, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Indian Union Muslim League, and the Kerala Congress among state parties, reported not receiving any Electoral Bonds.
