Sale of electoral bonds ahead of Karnataka polls up nine times compared to 2018

It is proving to be a rich election in Karnataka, which polls on May 10.

In the run up to the polls, the State of Bank of India in April sold electoral bonds worth Rs 970 crore. This is in fact nine times the value of the electoral bonds sold just ahead of the previous elections in 2018.

A total of Rs 1,470 electoral bonds worth Rs 970 crore were sold from April 3 and April 12 according to an RTI reply made to transparency campaigner Commodore Lokesh Batra.

In April 2018 ahead of the previous elections in Karnataka, the SBI had sold 256 electoral bonds worth Rs 114.90 crore, in what the second tranche of sales. The bank had revealed this information in a reply to similar queries under the RTI to Batra on April 26 2018 regarding the second tranche.

This time the SBI branch in Hyderabad had the most sales at Rs 335.30 crore. This was followed by Kolkata at Rs 197.40 crore followed by Mumbai at Rs 169.37 crore. Chennai and Delhi were next with sales of Rs 122 crore and Rs 55.65 crore respectively.

Around 58 per cent of the bonds sold were enchased at the New Delhi branch of the SBI (Rs 565.79 crore). This is because all the national parties have their bank accounts in the national capital.

Under the scheme the political parties have to open dedicated bank accounts at designated SBI branches to receive electoral bonds. The RTI showed that 25 parties had opened such accounts.

In 2018, it was the Mumbai branch which accounted for the highest amount of sales- Rs 51 crore, followed by Kolkata at Rs 40 crore.

In 2018, the SBI had offered the bonds in 13 branches. Now the bonds are available at 29 branches.