Election Commission makes fresh electoral bonds data public

Election Commission on Sunday made public fresh data on electoral bonds, which was previously submitted to the Supreme Court in sealed covers, following a directive from the apex court to make it available to the public. "The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website," the poll panel said in a statement.

The ECI had submitted it in the sealed covers to the Supreme Court and was later asked to put them in the public domain. Notably, this information pertains to transactions that occurred before April 12, 2019, while details of electoral bonds issued after this date were disclosed by the election commission last week. "Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court's order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in a sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website," the EC statement said.

According to the new details, DMK received Rs 656.5 crore through electoral bonds, including Rs 509 crore from lottery king Santiago Martin's Future Gaming. BJP encashed electoral bonds totalling Rs 6,986.5 crore. The highest amount received by the ruling party was in 2019-20 worth Rs 2,555 crore. Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds. The Supreme Court, in a ruling in February, struck down the Centre's Electoral Bond Scheme, which allowed for anonymous funding to political parties, and ordered the SBI to stop issuing Electoral Bonds immediately. It had asked SBI to furnish details of each electoral bond encashed by parties, including the date of encashment and the denomination of the bond.

On Monday, the top court dismissed an application of SBI seeking an extension of time till June 30 to submit details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission, asking the bank to disclose the details by March 12. The apex court also directed the poll panel to compile the information to be furnished by the SBI and publish the details on its official website no later than March 15, 2024, by 5 pm.