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On the whole, 24 political parties received donations through electoral bonds over the last five years amounting to Rs 12,769 crore.
The Bharatiya Janata Party was by far the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bonds scheme, receiving Rs 6,061 crore as political donations in the last five years, according to data submitted by State Bank of India (SBI) to the Election Commission of India of March 14. This amounts to 48 percent of all electoral bonds encashed by political parties since the start of 2019-20 and before it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
At second place is Trinamool Congress, which mopped up Rs 1,610 crore, followed by the Indian National Congress at Rs 1,422 crore.
Also Read: From lottery to milkshake, top 20 electoral bond donors gave nearly Rs 6,000 crore
Rounding off the top five are Bharat Rashtra Samithi, formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi, with Rs 1,215 crore and the Biju Janata Dal with Rs 776 crore.
At the other end of the spectrum are the likes of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Sikkim Democratic Front, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, J&K National Conference, and Goa Forward Party. All the five parties put together received just Rs 13 crore worth of donations from April 2019 to 2024, the data showed.
In all, 24 political parties received donations through electoral bonds over the last five years amounting to Rs 12,769 crore.
In a landmark ruling on February 15, the Supreme Court had unanimously struck down the electoral bonds scheme, saying it violated Article 19 of the Constitution by not disclosing the source of funding to political parties. The apex court had also ordered SBI, which is the sole bank authorised to handle the scheme, to submit the details of the bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 to the Election Commission by March 6.
SBI had then asked for an extension till June 30 to submit the details, arguing that they were not maintained centrally at any one place but in two different silos "to ensure that donors' anonymity would be protected". However, the Supreme Court on March 11 dismissed the plea and ordered the bank to send the electoral bonds details to the Election Commission by close of business on March 12, with the poll panel to publish the same on its website by 5 pm on March 15.
Also Read: The electoral bonds' story – From Arun Jaitley convincing his secretary to RBI's issues
The Supreme Court's ruling came after years of questions being raised over the scheme that was announced in the 2017-18 Union Budget by the then Finance Minister, the late Arun Jaitley. Interestingly, the scheme had its doubters even within the Finance Ministry, including former Finance Secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg.
Writing in his book 'We Also Make Policy', released in October 2023, Garg said his first impression of the electoral bond announcement was that it was a "devious way" to funnel company donations to the ruling party. However, Garg said his confidence in Jaitley's "sagacity" meant he didn't think this was actually the case.
As per the data submitted by SBI to the Election Commission, political parties have encashed a total of Rs 12,769 crore worth of electoral bonds in the last five years, with 35 percent of it being in 2023-24. The leanest year in terms of electoral bond encashment was 2020-21 – the last national elections were held in April-May 2019 – when only Rs 324 crore worth of the bonds were encashed, down from Rs 2,467 crore in 2019-20.