Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) is the second-largest recipient of electoral bonds, ahead of the Congress.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tops the list with electoral bonds worth Rs 6,986.5 crore received from donors since they were introduced in 2018, according to the latest data shared by the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday.

TMC, West Bengal’s ruling party, has received electoral bonds worth Rs 1,397 crore compared to Congress’s Rs 1,334.35 crore.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) received Rs 1,322 crore while Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Odisha’s ruling party, got Rs 944.5 crore, followed by the DMK at Rs 656.5 crore. Andhra Pradesh's ruling party YSR Congress received funds through these bonds at nearly Rs 442.8 crore.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) redeemed bonds worth Rs 181.35 crore, Shiv Sena Rs 60.4 crore, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rs 56 crore, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Rs 50.51 crore, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha Rs 15.5 crore, Samajwadi Party (SP) Rs 14.05 crore, Akali Dal Rs 7.26 crore, AIADMK Rs 6.05 crore, National Conference (NC) Rs 50 lakh from the Bharti Group and Sikkim Democratic Front Rs 50 lakh.

Top purchaser of electoral bonds, Future Gaming and Hotel Services, donated Rs 509 crore to Tamil Nadu's ruling party DMK through the now-scrapped payment mode, the EC data showed on Sunday.

The donations given by Future Gaming, whose owner, 'lottery king' Santiago Martin, has been under the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) scanner, accounted for more than 77% of the total receipts from electoral bonds of Rs 656.5 crore disclosed by the DMK, PTI reported.

Future Gaming was the biggest purchaser of electoral bonds at Rs 1,368 crore, of which nearly 37% 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).

Since most political parties have not disclosed the names of the donors, it was not known who were the beneficiaries of the balance Rs 859 crore worth bonds purchased by Future Gaming.

Parties like the DMK, AIADMK, Janata Dal Secular (JDS), Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), the undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and in parts the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Janata Dal United (JDU), identified their electoral bond donors. 

The Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) was the biggest donor to the JDS. Out of the Rs 89.75 crore it received from electoral bonds, Rs 50 crore came from the construction firm that has projects across India. The party has also received money from Infosys, the Embassy Group of Companies, Health Care Global Enterprises Private Limited, Shahi Exports Pvt. Ltd., Shankaranarayana Constructions (P) Ltd., JSW Steel Ltd, Amar Raj Groups and the Aditya Birla Group.

Incidentally, MEIL bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore between 2019 and 2023. In August 2018, the company got into the business of TV news and now owns a major stake in the TV9 network.

AAP’s largest donor of electoral bonds is the Bajaj group. Out of the Rs 65.45 crore which the party received between 18 April 2019 to 26 July 2023, Rs 3 crore came from the Bajaj Group and Rs 1 crore from Torrent Pharmaceuticals. BG Shirke Construction Technology has also donated Rs 1 crore to the AAP.

Incidentally, the Bajaj Group has donated Rs 48 crore as electoral bonds to all political parties and the Torrent group Rs 184 crore, according to data made available by the EC. 

The AIDMK party received Rs 5 crore of electoral bonds from Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd in 2019.

The disclosure is part of the data dump pertaining to a total of 523 recognised and non-recognised political parties made public by the EC on the Supreme Court's orders, PTI reported. This was followed by another dataset published by the EC last week based on the information submitted by the State Bank of India (SBI), the sole bank authorised to sell and redeem electoral bonds.

The latest dataset released by the EC included scanned copies of the disclosures made by the political parties, running into hundreds of pages.

While initially the data submitted by the SBI pertained to a period from 12 April 2019 till the scrapping of the bonds by the apex court last month, the latest disclosure is based on the declarations given by various political parties in November last year on the bonds redeemed by them since the scheme was launched in early 2018 and exclude the last few tranches.