GUWAHATI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday revealed a fresh set of data of electoral bonds received by political parties till May 2019 on its official website.
The data, which was provided by political parties to ECI in sealed envelopes after the Supreme Court had issued an interim order in April, 2019, reveals that just five political parties -- BJP, Congress, Trinamool, BRS and BJD -- together accounted for nearly 87% of donations received through the electoral bonds scheme.
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However, most of the political parties, accounting for nearly 94% of donations, failed to disclose their donor information in the sealed envelopes, citing various reasons, while only two - DMK and Goa Forward Party- who accounted for only 4% of the electoral bond donations made a full disclosure of donor information, while some political parties made partial disclosures.
The reason that parties gave for not disclosing details (or in some cases disclosing some donors, but not others) varied as BJP stated that the Electoral Bond scheme was designed to provide anonymity to donors and hence it would not reveal their identity, while NCP stated that it had not maintained records of each donor, since it wasn’t required to do so, even as Congress did not provide an explanation at all.
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The new data provided added information on funds received by political parties since the inception of the electoral bonds scheme, with BJP leading with ₹8,251 crore, followed by Congress with ₹1,952 crore and TMC with ₹1,717 crore at a distant second and third.
The State Bank of India (SBI) was ordered by the SC today to reveal the alphanumeric number corresponding to each bond by March 21, which is expected to establish a link between the donor and the beneficiary political party.
