New Delhi: The Election Commission of India Sunday published fresh details on electoral bonds purchased by people and redeemed by parties. The information includes electoral bond details submitted to ECI by political parties under sealed cover.

The parties had filed the data on Electoral Bonds in sealed cover as directed by the Supreme Court’s interim order dated April 12, 2019, the poll panel said in a statement.

“Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court’s order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website,” EC said.

The latest data includes funding details of all political parties including national, state and unrecognised political parties. BJP, in its reply to Election Expenditure Division on November 15, 2023, provided a 20-page statement under sealed cover, carrying the details of electoral bonds the saffron party received from 2017-18 till 2023-24 (September 2023). BJP encashed electoral bonds totalling Rs 6,987.40 crore; maximum Rs 2,555 crore received in 2019-20.

Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore through electoral bonds, second-largest recipient after BJP. Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds. BRS is the fourth-largest recipient, encashing bonds worth Rs 1,322 crore. BJD encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 944.5 crore, YSR Congress Rs 442.8 crore, and TDP Rs 181.35 crore.

Samajwadi Party got Rs 14.05 crore via electoral bonds, Akali Dal Rs 7.26 crore, AIADMK Rs 6.05 crore, and National Conference Rs 50 lakh. The JD(S) received bonds worth Rs 89.75 crore, including Rs 50 crore from Megha Engineering, the second largest purchaser of electoral bonds.

Future Gaming of lottery king Santiago Martin was the biggest purchaser of electoral bonds at Rs 1,368 crore, of which nearly 37 per cent went to the DMK. Other major donors of the DMK included Megha Engineering Rs 105 crore, India Cements Rs 14 crore and Sun TV Rs 100 crore. The TMC received Rs 1,397 crore through electoral bonds, second largest recipient after the BJP.

The DMK was among the few political parties to disclose the identity of the donors, while major parties such as the BJP, Congress, TMC and AAP did not disclose these details to the Election Commission, which has now made public those filing as per a Supreme Court order.

The CPI(M) has declared that it will not receive funds through electoral bonds, while filings made by the AIMIM and BSP showed nil receipts.