Electoral bonds,
The larger recipients of funding from electoral bonds, including the Bhartiya Janata Party, Congress and the Trinamool Congress have not shared details about their donors, in their submissions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) under the direction of the Supreme Court in May 2019 and November 2023. This came to light on Sunday when the Commission published the data previously submitted to it by political parties in sealed covers under the top court’s directions. 

In fact, only a handful of parties including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Janata Dal (Secular) have complied with the directive. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Janata Dal (United) revealed donor names from the start of the scheme in 2018 till May 2019. 

The largest recipient of electoral bonds, the BJP, pointed to the rules of the scheme that precluded parties from having to maintain donor details. Thus, it did not maintain a record of these particulars. Other parties too put forth the same argument, stating these were essentially bearer bonds. The details will only be available with the authorised bond issuer, the State Bank of India (SBI), they said. Congress and Trinamool Congress in fact stated in their 2019 disclosures that they had specifically asked the SBI to provide them with details of the donors’ names. 

SBI published the data on electoral bonds in two sets on March 14. The first contained the name of the purchaser of the bond, and the denomination of the bond purchased. The second set contained the date of encashment, the denomination and the political party that encashed it.

 A total of 22,217 bonds were purchased between April 1, 2019, and February 15, 2024, with 22,030 bonds encashed by political parties.