The Election Commission of India on Sunday released data received from political parties on electoral bonds, which it had given to the Supreme Court in sealed covers, following a directive from the apex court to make it available to the public. These details are believed to be pertaining to the period before April 12, 2019.
The election commission’s data showed while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre received the maximum funds through these bonds at ₹6,986.5 crore since they were introduced in 2018, Future Gaming and Hotel Services – the top purchaser of electoral bonds – donated ₹509 crore to Tamil Nadu’s ruling party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam through the now-scrapped payment mode.
The disclosure is part of the data dump about a total of 523 recognised and non-recognised political parties made public by the EC on the Supreme Court’s directives. This followed another dataset published by the poll panel last week based on the information submitted by the State Bank of India (SBI), the sole bank authorised to sell and redeem electoral bonds.
