15 Prominent Corporate Figures Purchased Electoral Bonds, Reveals Election Commission Data: Report

Electoral bonds amounting to ₹358.91 crore were purchased by a total of 333 individuals between April 2019 and January 2024, as disclosed by the Election Commission of India (ECI), as per the report by The Indian Express,

Among these individuals, notable figures, many of whom hold significant positions in large corporate entities, accounted for ₹158.65 crore or 44.2% of the total, the newspaper found.

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EC releases data 15 prominent corporate figures

Here is the list of 15 individuals:

• ₹35 crore by Lakshmi Niwas Mittal
• ₹25 crore by Laxmidas Vallabhdas Merchant
• ₹20 crore by Rahul Bhatia
• ₹14 crore by Inder Thakurdas Jaisinghani
• ₹13 crore by Rajesh Mannalal Agarwal (Ajanta Pharma Limited)
• ₹10 crore each by Harmesh Rahul Joshi & Rahul Jagannath Joshi (Om Freight Group of companies)
• ₹6 crore by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Biocon)
• ₹5 crore by Indrani Patnaik
• ₹5 crore by Sudhakar Kancharla (Yoda Group)
• ₹4.25 crore by Abhrajit Mitra (Searock Infraproject Private Limited)
• ₹3.4 crore by Sarojit Kumar Dey (JD Agro Development Private Limited)
• ₹3 crore by Dilip Ramanlal Thacker (Samudra Real Estate Private Limited; Jade Minerals & Mines Private Limited)
• ₹3 crore by Prakash Balwant Mengane (Shreenath Stapatya India Private Limited)
• ₹2 crore by Nirmal Kumar Bathwal (Penguin Trading & Agencies Limited)

The data released by the Election Commission on Sunday revealed that lottery king Santiago Martin's Future Gaming was the biggest purchaser of electoral bonds at ₹1,368 crore, with nearly 37 per cent going to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). These details pertain to the period before April 12, 2019, while electoral bond details after this date were made public by the EC last week.

The Hindustan Times reported that the company donated ₹509 crore to Tamil Nadu's ruling party DMK through the electoral bond. Other major donors to the MK Stalin-led DMK included Megha Engineering ₹105 crore, India Cements ₹14 crore, and Sun TV ₹100 crore.

The data released by the Election Commission, received from political parties on electoral bonds, was provided to the Supreme Court in sealed covers.

The data also indicated that the BJP received the maximum funds through these bonds at ₹6,986.5 crore since their introduction in 2018, followed by West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress ( ₹1,397 crore), Congress ( ₹1,334 crore), and BRS ( ₹1,322 crore).