On Tuesday, the Election Commission received information about the electoral bonds from the SBI.
In accordance with the Supreme Court’s orders, the Election Commission of India posted data on electoral bonds on its website on Thursday, courtesy of the State Bank of India (SBI). The poll panel has uploaded the data in two parts. The first portion is 337 pages long and includes information about the entities that purchased the electoral bonds as well as the date of purchase. The second part is 426 pages long and includes information about the political parties, dates, and amounts. The information does not, however, specify which party’s bonds were purchased by which company.
In accordance with the directives of the Honorable Supreme Court, as stated in its orders dated February 15 and March 11, 2024 (in the case of WPC No. 880 of 2017), the State Bank of India (SBI) gave the Election Commission of India (ECI) the information regarding the electoral bonds on March 12, 2024. In an official statement, the Election Commission of India stated that it has uploaded the electoral bond data that it got from SBI on a “as is where is basis” to its website today.
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 are among the donors, according to the provided data.
The BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party are among the parties that have redeemed electoral bonds.
Tuesday, one day after the Supreme Court denied the lender’s request for an extension of the deadline for disclosing electoral bond details, the SBI gave the Election Commission the electoral bond details. Additionally, by 5 p.m. on March 15, the Supreme Court ordered the poll panel to publish the data that the bank had supplied on its official website.
Notably, individuals or businesses in India can purchase electoral bonds, which are financial securities that function as promissory notes or bearer bonds. They are given expressly to facilitate financial contributions to political parties. These bonds were offered in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, and ₹1 crore. The SBI issued these bonds.
Arun Jaitley, the former finance minister, originally revealed the electoral bonds program during the 2017 budget session. It was subsequently made public in January 2018 as a means of financing politics through money bills that included changes to the Finance Act and the Representation of the People Act. But the plan was overturned by the Supreme Court last month, which declared it to be “unconstitutional.”