New Delhi: The top five political parties that encashed electoral bonds worth a total of Rs 11,082 crore from private companies from April 2019 to January 2024, had their fate decided by perceptions and outcomes in elections, data uploaded by the Election Commission of India on its website on March 14 reveals.
The top five political parties include the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that received a total of Rs 6,060.5 crore, All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) received a total of Rs 1,609.5 crore, the Congress at the third spot received Rs 1,421.8 crores, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) encashed Rs 1,214.7 crore, and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) received Rs 775.5 crore.
Data published by the Election Commission includes information about electoral bonds worth Rs 12,769 crore from April 12, 2019 to January, 2024.
The Supreme Court, in its order immediately nixing electoral bonds on February 15, said, “There is also a legitimate possibility that financial contributions to a political party would lead to a quid pro quo arrangement because of the close nexus between money and politics.”
BJP in top spot
While the BJP, which is the largest recipient of electoral bonds, received a total of Rs 6,060.5 crore as electoral bonds, it encashed the majority before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, followed by the 2021 and 2023 assembly elections.
The party redeemed Rs 1,771.57 crore worth of electoral bonds between April and May 2019, before the Lok Sabha election. The 2019 general election in India earned the dubious highlight of being the most expensive election in the world, more expensive than the one in the US in 2016. A study cited by Bloomberg showed that $8.7 billion were spent in that election.
In comparison, in July 2019, after the polls, it encashed bonds only worth Rs 15 crore.
Between January and April 2021, with key state assembly elections due in four states and one Union Territory, including West Bengal (where the BJP has been looking to wrest power from the TMC), Assam (that has emerged as a key stronghold in the northeast since 2016), Tamil Nadu and Kerala (southern states where the BJP is yet to make electoral inroads) and Puducherry, it redeemed electoral bonds worth Rs 292 crore.
In comparison, between July and October 2021 – when elections were over – the party only encashed bonds worth Rs 80 crore.
In 2023 when assembly elections were due in key Hindi heartland states (two of which were Congress-ruled) Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan along with Telangana and Mizoram, the BJP encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 1,149 crore in the run-up to the polls between July and December 2023.
In comparison, the party encashed bonds worth Rs 527 crore in the first half of the year – between January and April 2023.
TMC: a surprise #2
The Trinamool Congress, a regional party, has surprisingly surpassed the Congress, the country’s main national opposition party, by encashing electoral bonds worth a total of Rs 1,609.5 crore between April 2019 and January 2024. This is considered significant for a party ruling just one state.
Data shows that the TMC got more electoral bonds, after its resounding victory in the 2021 assembly elections, where it secured a third term in power.
Between April 2019 and April 2021, the TMC encashed bonds worth Rs 196 crore.
In this case, it was after the assembly elections (results were declared on May 2, 2021) that the party encashed bonds worth Rs 249 crore between July and October 2021 alone.
Subsequently, the party encashed bonds worth Rs 468 crore in 2022, and Rs 562 crore in 2023, and Rs 130 crore in January 2024.
Congress encashed more after state wins
Like the TMC, which benefitted from its victory in the 2021 assembly elections, data shows that the Congress which received a total of Rs 1,421.8 crore also benefited from electoral bonds more after its victories and saw its fortunes dwindling after losses.
The grand old party redeemed Rs 168 crore between April and May 2019, ahead of the last Lok Sabha election. Donations dropped in the subsequent months after the BJP’s landslide victory. Congress ended up redeeming just Rs 1.7 crore in October 2019, and Rs 9 crore in 2020.
Ahead of the assembly elections in 2021, its fortunes related to bonds improved, with data showing the party redeemed Rs 65 crore between January and April that year and then Rs 58 crore in the second half of the year.
Between January and April 2022, when elections were due in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, and Goa, the party redeemed Rs 127 crore and subsequently went down to Rs 37 crore in October that year after losses in the polls.
According to the data, the party’s victory in Himachal Pradesh in December that year turned its fortunes in getting donations via electoral bonds.
Though it lost the elections in the BJP bastion Gujarat, its victory in Himachal Pradesh assembly elections (results were declared on December 8, 2022) perhaps helped the party secure electoral bonds worth Rs 209 crore between December 13, 2022 and April 20, 2023.
During this period, it received Rs 190 crore in April itself – ahead of the Karnataka elections where it recorded a resounding victory, after a large-scale disenchantment with the BJP’s B.S. Bommai government in the state.
The party also made huge gains in the form of electoral bond donations in the run-up to the 2023 assembly elections, where it was looking to retain power in two states (Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan) and dislodge the four-term BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, and dislodge the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana.
While elections were held in November, the party encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 401 crore in October and Rs 179 crore in November.
Following its defeat in the four of the five states (it only won Telangana), the party encashed just Rs 35 crore in January 2024.
BRS bond squeeze after loss
Data shows that the BRS, too, suffered losses in terms of donations from electoral bonds after its loss in the 2023 assembly elections in Telangana which saw the party being routed after two terms in power.
While the BRS encashed Rs 37 crore between April and May 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, data shows its fortunes seeing a huge jump after it redeemed Rs 153 crore in October 2021, rising further to being able to redeem Rs 410 crore in April 2022.
It then encashed Rs 118 crore worth of bonds in the second half of the year.
In 2023, the party encashed a total of Rs 96 crore between January and April, rising to Rs 318 crore in July. Ahead of the assembly elections, where the Congress was gaining momentum, the BRS encashed Rs 72 crore in October and Rs 13 crore in November.
After its drubbing in the assembly elections (results for which were declared on December 3), the party did not encash any further bonds.
BJD received high amounts during the pandemic
The BJD, which is in power in Odisha, received a total of Rs 775.5 crore, according to data showing bonds it encashed.
In 2019, months after the party returned to power in the state, it encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore in July, followed by Rs 10 crore in January 2020, and Rs 67 crore in October 2020.
During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the BJD encashed bonds worth Rs 116 crore in April 2021 and subsequently Rs 125 crore in October 2021.
In 2022, it encashed a total of Rs 195 crore.
However, a year ahead of elections, where the BJD is seeking a sixth consecutive term in power, the party has encashed Rs 252 crore between February and November 2023.
The data published on the Election Commission’s website was released after the Supreme Court, earlier this week, asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to furnish all details of those who had purchased and those who had encashed anonymous electoral bonds since 2019. It had also asked the Election Commission to publish the data on its website by March 15.
The data uploaded by the Election Commission – a day before its Supreme Court-ordered deadline – includes two documents: a date-wise list of purchases by companies and a date-wise list of deposits by political parties that have encashed them.
The Supreme Court on Friday (March 15) issued a notice to SBI for not releasing the bond numbers in the electoral bond data submitted to the Election Commission of India, which it had made public on Thursday. Without the bond numbers being made available in either list, it was not possible to cross-verify which company or individual was donating to which party.