New Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party garnered an astonishing Rs 6,566 crore through electoral bonds, which was quashed by the apex court in a landmark judgment on Thursday. The details of the money bagged by the political parties came to light in a separate verdict written by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, citing a violation of the voters’ right to information.
The BJP’s electoral bond earnings are nearly six times higher than what the main opposition party, the Congress, garnered through the bonds – Rs 1,123 crore, reported Manorama News. CPM, which is a party to the litigation challenging the electoral bond scheme, has not accepted even a rupee via the bonds, confirmed reports.
As per the statistics provided in Parliament, so far electoral bonds worth Rs 16, 518 crore had been issued. But details of how much each party had got were not revealed in Parliament. That has come out now through the judgment.
So far, there was no need to disclose the identity of the donors of electoral bonds. The Rs 6,566 crore which reached the BJP’s kitty was during the period from 2017 to 2023. It was also revealed that parties that were in power at the centre or states benefitted the most from the quashed electoral bonds.
Earnings of other parties through electoral bonds are:
Trinamool Congress : Rs 1,092
Biju Janata Dal: Rs 774 crore
DMK: Rs 616 crore
Bharat Rashtra Samiti (formerly TRS): Rs 386 crore
YSR Congress: Rs 382 crore
TDP: Rs 146 crore
Shiv Sena: Rs 101.38 crore
Aam Aadmi Party: Rs 94.28 crore
When figures of the current financial year are audited after March these figures will rise again. The value of 92.45 per cent of electoral bonds are multiples of Rs 1 crore. There are only 99 bonds issued for a value of Rs 1,000. The statistics underscore the SC verdict that pointed out that the companies that issue electoral bonds would have vested interests.
