New Delhi: Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) — the second-largest purchaser of electoral bonds — was the highest donor to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), having donated Rs 664 crore to it. This works out to about 11 percent of what the BJP received through electoral bonds.
The company, along with its subsidiary, bought Rs 1,186 crore of bonds in total, which means it donated nearly 56 percent of this amount to the BJP.
On the other hand, Future Gaming and Hotel Services — the largest purchaser of electoral bonds — donated just Rs 100 crore to the BJP out of its total electoral bond purchases of Rs 1,368 crore, which is a little over 7 percent.
The complete data — including the alphanumeric numbers of the bonds bought by donors and bonds encashed by political parties — was made public by the Election Commission of India Thursday evening.
At the outset, it is important to note that the two datasets do not match completely. While there are 18,871 bonds that have been purchased, the political parties in total encashed 20,421 bonds — a difference of 1,550 bonds.
The value of these ‘missing’ bonds, which is the difference between the total value of bonds encashed (Rs 12,769 crore) minus the total value of bonds bought (Rs 12,155 crore) works out to Rs 613.6 crore.
In other words, political parties received Rs 613.6 crore worth of bonds that still cannot be linked to donors. Of these unmatched bonds, the BJP accounts for the largest share of Rs 466.3 crore, or more than three-fourths.
The Indian National Congress (INC) has Rs 77 crore worth of bonds for which the purchaser cannot be traced. Meanwhile, about Rs 17 crore worth of bonds encashed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) cannot be linked to donors.
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Other major donors to the BJP
While Megha Engineering and its subsidiary Western UP Power Transmission Company donated nearly 56 percent of their electoral bonds to the BJP, they also donated to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) (Rs 195 crore), INC (Rs 128 crore), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) (Rs 85 crore), Telugu Desam Party (Rs 48 crore), YSR Congress Party (Rs 37 crore), Jana Sena Party (Rs 14 crore), Janata Dal (United) (Rs 10 crore) and Janata Dal (Secular) (Rs 5 crore).
The second-highest donor to the BJP was Qwik Supply Chain, a supply chain management company, which purchased Rs 410 crore worth of bonds and donated Rs 375 crore of that amount to the BJP. The company donated Rs 25 crore to the Shiv Sena and the remaining Rs 10 crore to the Nationalist Congress Party.
One of Qwik Supply Chain’s whole-time directors, Tapas Mitra, is also a director on several companies owned and linked to Reliance, such as Reliance Polyester, Reliance Oil and Petroleum, Reliance Photo Films, Jamnagar Ratlam Pipeline Company, and Jamnagar Kandla Pipeline Company.
The Kolkata-based Keventer Group, through four of its subsidiaries — Keventer Foodpark Infra Limited, MKJ Enterprises, Madanlal Ltd, and Sasmal Infrastructure — donated the third-highest amount, Rs 351.92 crore, to the BJP.
The group bought a total of Rs 616.92 crore worth of electoral bonds, which means the BJP accounted for 57 percent of its donations. The remaining went to the INC (Rs 160.6 crore), TMC (Rs 65.9 crore), Samajwadi Party (Rs 10 crore), BRS (Rs 10 crore), Biju Janata Dal (BJD) (Rs 10 crore), Aam Aadmi Party (Rs 7 crore), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Rs 1 crore), and Shiromani Akali Dal (Rs 0.5 crore).
The Bharti Group, through three of its subsidiaries — Bharti Airtel, Bharti Telemedia, and Bharti Infratel — donated Rs 236.4 crore to the BJP, making it the party’s fourth-largest donor.
This made up nearly 98 percent of the group’s total electoral bond purchases, with the marginal amount remaining being divided between the INC, Janata Dal (United), National Conference, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Shiromani Akali Dal.
Mining major Vedanta purchased Rs 400.35 crore worth of electoral bonds, of which it donated Rs 230.15 crore to the BJP, its fifth largest donor. The remaining was donated to the INC (Rs 125 crore), BJD (Rs 40 crore), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Rs 5 crore), and the TMC (Rs 0.2 crore).
The Aditya Birla Group was next on the list of sizable donors to the BJP. Between its subsidiaries Essel Mining & Industries, Utkal Alumina International, Birla Carbon, and Birla Estates, the group bought a total of Rs 476.8 crore worth of bonds. Of this, it donated Rs 230 crore to the BJP.
However, although the Aditya Birla Group was among the top donors to the BJP, the BJP was not the party that received the highest amount of its donations. The Aditya Birla Group donated Rs 244.5 crore to the Biju Janata Dal — surpassing what it donated to the BJP. The INC and the Shiv Sena received the small remaining amount.
The DLF group emerged as the seventh largest donor to the BJP — donating the entire Rs 170 crore worth of bonds it purchased to the party.
The Torrent Group — through its subsidiaries Torrent Pharma and Torrent Power — bought Rs 184 crore worth of electoral bonds, of which it donated Rs 137 crore or nearly 75 percent to the BJP.
The balance 25 percent was divided between the AAP, SP, NCP, INC, Shiv Sena, Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha.
The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group bought Rs 604 crore worth of bonds through five companies — Haldia Energy, Dhariwal Infrastructure, Philips Carbon Black, Crescent Power, and RPSG Ventures. Of this, it donated Rs 126 crore to the BJP.
While it was the ninth largest donor to the BJP in the country, the party was not even in the top three parties the group donated to. The bulk of the company’s donations went to the TMC, worth Rs 457 crore, while the INC received Rs 15 crore from the group in total.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services, which donated Rs 100 crore to the BJP, chose to donate the bulk of its Rs 1,365 crore bonds to the TMC (Rs 542 crore), the DMK (Rs 503 crore), YSR Congress (Rs 154 crore), INC (Rs 50 crore), SKM (Rs 11 crore), and SDF (Rs 5 crore).
(Edited by Richa Mishra)