Guwahati: The Election Commission (EC) released data on electoral bonds received by political parties, covering the period before April 12, 2019.
This comes a day after the announcement of Lok Sabha election dates.
The data includes details like bond denominations, number of bonds, issuing branch, and encashment dates, but not the unique bond numbers. Political parties like Trinamool Congress have requested these unique numbers from SBI to comply with Supreme Court directions.
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The data reveals significant donations through electoral bonds. Notably, the DMK received Rs 656.5 crore, including Rs 509 crore from Future Gaming linked to lottery king Santiago Martin.
The TRS (now BRS) received Rs 230.65 crore between 2018 and 2019.
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It’s important to note that electoral bonds were recently struck down by the Supreme Court for violating transparency in political funding.
While the BJP received nearly half of all electoral bonds cashed by March 2023, the data doesn’t reveal specific donors behind these contributions.
This release offers some transparency into pre-2019 political funding, but the lack of donor identification remains a concern.