Electoral bonds case: Who gave how much to which party? The guessing game is on...
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.
On Friday, the court, however, asked the SBI to share the unique alphanumeric code printed on each electoral bond, which helps match donors with political parties. While the details of the unique alphanumeric code are awaited, many on social media, including political leaders, started making conjectures about which companies might have donated crores to political parties, especially the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Congress leader Jairam Ramesh launched a scathing attack on the BJP, accusing the party of using "electoral bonds for quid pro quo".
He retweeted a social media post which shared a thread on top companies that made huge political donations and were given contacts in BJP-ruled states. The links were established between raids by central probe agencies on firms and their subsequent donations in the form of electoral bonds. In another tweet, Ramesh alleged that "there are many cases of companies that have donated electoral bonds, and immediately afterwards gotten huge benefits from the government".
Read more on livemint.com
