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Opposition parties on Friday accused the government of using pressure of investigative agencies and quid-pro-quo methods on business firms to help the BJP get the largest chunk of political donations through electoral bonds, and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into what they saw as corruption by the ruling establishment. The Congress also demanded a freeze on BJP's bank accounts. Citing the electoral bond data that State Bank of India provided to the Election Commission, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the BJP received about half the total donations while the principal opposition party, Congress, got only 11%. «There are many dubious donors. Who are these people? Which companies are these? Why have so many companies donated only after ED, IT and CBI raids? Who put the pressure on such companies,» Kharge asked, and sought a Supreme Court-led investigation into «the saga of corruption». «It is quite worrying that while the accounts of the Congress party have been frozen, no action has been taken against the BJP which has illegally acquired crores and crores of money,» he said, referring to a lien the Income Tax Department imposed on its account. «Thus, along with an inquiry, we demand that accounts of BJP should be frozen with immediate effect due to the illegal nature of the funds received through the electoral bonds scheme,» he added.

Follow Electoral Bonds Data Live updates here However, there's no way to find out which donor/company donated how much to which political parties. This was despite the Supreme Court raising concerns in its February 15 judgement that the now-scrapped Electoral Bond Scheme can lead to quid pro quo. In later rulings, the Supreme Court said the State Bank of India (SBI) does not need to match the names of electoral bond buyers with specific political parties.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday denied any link between the functioning of investigative agencies, including ED raids, and electoral funding to the ruling party, saying these allegations are just assumptions. «What if the companies gave the money, and after that, we still went and knocked at their doors through ED (Enforcement Directorate). Is that a probability or not...It is an assumption that the ED went and knocked at their doors, and to save themselves they came up with funds. The second assumption is that are you sure that they have given (electoral bonds) to BJP. What if they probably gave to regional parties,» she said while speaking at India Today Conclave. The finance minister's comments came a day after the Election Commission of India published a list of subscribers of the electoral bonds and funds mobilised by various political parties. The list provided by State Bank of India, the issuer of electoral bonds, was published after the order of the Supreme Court.

Also Read: Catch Electoral Bonds Data Live updates As soon as the list was published, allegation of Quid pro quo surfaced with opposition parties alleging link between top donor companies and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that “immediately after receiving some handouts from the Central government, companies have repaid the favour through electoral bonds." On Thursday, Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan too alleged quid pro quo. He took to microblogging site X to write, “On 11 April 23, Megha Engineering gives 100s Crs in #ElectoralBonds to whom? But within a month it gets a 14,400 cr contract from BJP’s Mah govt! Though SBI has hidden Bond numbers from the info, some of donors & parties match can be guessed.

Congress got only 11 percent," the Congress President said. Mallikarjun Kharge demanded a special investigation into the donations made through electoral bonds and said that the account of the BJP must remain frozen till the completion of the probe. "Even our voter pattern (percentage) if you see we are nearly one-third and the rest of the people are two-third including BJP, but in donations, they got more than 50 percent.

Jairam Ramesh also said the party continues to demand unique bond ID numbers, so that it can precisely match donors to recipients. "The BJP's Hafta Vasooli strategy is simple raid a target through the ED/CBI/IT, and then seek hafta ("donations") for the company's protection. At least 14 of the top 30 donors have been raided," Ramesh alleged.

Reliance Industries, was the third largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds. It bought Rs 410 crore of electoral bonds between financial years 2021-22 and 2023-24 but Reliance said the company is not a subsidiary of any Reliance entity. Electoral bond purchases and donations by Qwik Supply were behind Rs 1,368 crore of Future Gaming and Hotel Services — another little-known lottery company — and Rs 966 crore of Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infra, according to information uploaded by the Election Commission on its website. Publicly available information describes Qwik Supply as a manufacturer of warehouses and storage units. The unlisted private company was incorporated on November 9, 2000 with an authorised share capital of Rs 130.99 crore. Its paid-up capital is Rs 129.99 crore.

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electoral bonds for contributions to political parties. This came after the Supreme Court of India directed the State Bank of India to complete its submission of data on March 12. Now, with the lists revealed, leading the list of donors is a rather unknown company called Future Gaming and Hotel Services, helmed by "Lottery King" Santiago Martin.

earlier submitted the data to the ECI. Let’s take a look at 10 key takeaways. 1.

Catch the latest updates on the Electoral Bond news on Mint's LIVE blog:The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress, and the Congress Party were among the top political parties that received a lion's share of funds from the electoral bonds.According to the Mint's analysis, only seven out of the 30 Sensex firms featured in the list that purchased electoral bonds since April 2019:According to the Election Commission's website, the list of top entities which purchased electoral bonds to make political donations are-Future Gaming and Hotel Services purchased bonds worth ₹1,368 crore while Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd at ₹966 crore.

Also Read: SBI Electoral Bonds data LIVE updates According to the data, 23 companies accounted for half the total value of electoral bonds purchased since April 2019. Coimbatore-based lottery services firm Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd emerged as the top buyer. The list published by ECI gave details of bonds worth ₹12,155.51 crore that were purchased by over 1,300 companies in nearly five years.

Mint analysis of the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday. Until the Supreme Court quashed the scheme last month, purchasing an electoral bond effectively meant making a political donation that could later be encashed by a political party. The list detailed bonds worth ₹12,155.51 crore purchased by over 1,300 companies in nearly five years.

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Income Tax Appellate Tribunal unfreezes Congress' bank accounts, Kharge says 'power drunk Modi Govt…' Taking up the issue of electoral bonds, which got scrapped by the Supreme Court of India last month, said, " They (Bharatiya Janata party) are not disclosing about electoral bonds they got because their theft will come out, their wrong deeds will come out, so they asked for time till July". In February this year, Congress announced that its bank accounts had been frozen by the Income Tax department in connection with a dispute over a tax demand of ₹210 crore.

Also Read: SBI electoral bonds data submitted to Election Commission a day after Supreme Court rebuke “In compliance of the Hon'ble Supreme Court's directions to the SBI, contained in its order dated Feb 15 & March 11, 2024 (in the matter of WPC NO.880 of 2017), data on electoral bonds has been supplied by the State Bank of India to the Election Commission of India, today, March 12, 2024," the poll panel had said. Also Read: SC Bar Association writes to President Murmu, says ‘if donors are singled out …’ The SC had instructed SBI to provide information to EC following the correlation of donor data with political party affiliations.

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dismissed the State Bank of India's request for an extended deadline to provide electoral bonds data, SBI is now pressed for time to meet the apex court's orders by the end of working hours today (March 12). SBI's management has directed the overseeing department — the transaction banking marketing department based in Mumbai to "hurry up" and "complete the task at the earliest" to meet the SC's deadline, Moneycontrol reported citing sources.