A total of 28,030 electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore have been sold from March 2018 to January 2024, according to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The BJP has received the highest contributions through the electoral bonds amounting to Rs 6,566 crore or 54.77 per cent, followed by Congress with 1,123 crore or 9.37 per cent, Trinamool Congress, which got Rs 1,092 crore or 9.11 per cent, it revealed.
The findings come on the day when a five-judge Constitution bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud on Thursday struck down the electoral bonds scheme calling it “unconstitutional” and violates the fundamental right to freedom of expression and the right to information act.
In two separate but unanimous judgments, the apex court has directed the State Bank of India, which is the authorised bank to issue electoral bonds, to furnish all details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 till date to the Election Commission of India by March 6, and the poll body has been asked to furnish the details on its official website by March 13.
The bench said that SBI should disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the electoral bond. The apex court has also directed the electoral bonds which have not been encashed by political parties shall be returned by the political party or the purchaser to the issuing bank, which shall be returned to the purchaser’s bank.
According to the ADR report, the highest number of electoral bonds from March 2018 to January 2024, the highest number of electoral bonds totalling 5,426 was sold in the Mumbai branch amounting to Rs 4,009.35 crore, followed by 4,812 electoral bonds (Rs 3,554.90 crore) in the Hyderabad branch, in the Kolkata branch, 7,834 electoral bonds (Rs 3,333.79 crore) were sold and in the Delhi branch 3,662 electoral bonds were sold and the amount comes to 2,324.12 crore.
An electoral bond is a financial instrument for making donations to political parties and donors will be anonymous.
There is no upper limit on the number of bonds one can buy or donate, while these were available in denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore, the last being the most sold category.
In the Mumbai branch, 3,884 EBs of one crore denomination was sold, while 3,464 EBs of the same denomination was sold in the Hyderabad branch, the ADR report showed.