Fresh details offer peek at donor details of 11 parties

NEW DELHI ​New data uploaded by the Election Commission on Sunday revealed donor details for at least some of the parties, something that was missing in the data released on March 14.
Donor details have been made available for 11 parties. Of these, eight have submitted data pertaining to the period before April 12, 2019, and three parties — Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) — have submitted data till September 30, 2023. The newly submitted data connects some of the biggest electoral bond donors to their recipients.
Among the three parties that have revealed donors up to September 2023, the DMK is the biggest recipient with bond donations of ₹662.5 crore, followed by the JD(S) ( ₹89.8 crore) and the MGP ( ₹55 lakh).
The two biggest donors for the DMK during this period contributed over 90% of the party’s bond receipts. They were Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd, which donated 77% ( ₹509 crore) of the party’s bond receipts, and Megha Engineering & Infrastructure ltd, which donated 16% ( ₹105 crore).
Similarly, JD(S) received around 80% of its ₹89.8 crore bond donations from just two companies:Megha Engineering & Infrastructure ltd and the Embassy Group of Companies. The former donated 56% of the JD(S)’s bond receipts ( ₹50 crore) and the latter 24.5% ( ₹22 crore).
The MGP received bond donations from just two companies: ₹35 lakh from VM Salgaocar & Brother Pvt Ltd and ₹20 lakh from VS Dempo & Company Pvt Ltd.
The top three recipients for the period up to April 12, 2019 for whom donor details have been made available are the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Janata Dal (United), and Samajwadi Party. They have revealed donors for ₹37.75 crore, ₹13 crore and ₹10.84 crore, respectively.
The top three donors for the NCP were Bajaj Finserv, Atula Choradia, owner of the Panchshil Group, and Infina Infrastructure. They donated ₹7.5 crore, ₹5 crore and ₹5 crore, respectively, of the total ₹37.75 crore for which the party has revealed donors.
The top donors for the Janta Dal (United) included Shree Cement, which donated ₹2 crore, and Bharati Airtel, which donated ₹1 crore. Another ₹10 crore were donated by donors whose identity has not been made available.
The top donors for the Samajwadi Party were San Beverages, which donated ₹30 lakh, and AK Traders and KS Traders which donated ₹10 lakh each.
The data released on Sunday also allows one to track the fraction of companies’ total bond donations that went to parties who have revealed their bond donors. For example, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited, owned by lottery magnate Santiago Martin, purchased electoral bonds worth ₹1,368 crore from April 12, 2029 to January 11, 2024. It was the biggest purchaser in this period. At least ₹509 crore (37%) of this went to the DMK, which has revealed receipts of donations from April 15, 2019 to September 30, 2023, but not for the period after. The company appears in the list of the DMK’s donors in every fiscal year since 2020-21. The DMK came into power in Tamil Nadu in May 2021.
Meanwhile, the second-biggest purchaser of electoral bonds from April 12, 2019 to January 11, 2024 was Megha Engineering. It gave ₹150 crore to the DMK and ₹50 crore to the JD(S). These two parties accounted for 15.5% and 5% respectively of the ₹966 crore worth of electoral bonds purchased by the company.
The list of donors even includes an IPL Franchise. The Chennai Super Kings, owned by India Cements, donated ₹5 crore to the AIADMK. Meanwhile, the DMK received ₹10 crore from India Cements.
To be sure, the data here only includes parties that revealed their donor details for electoral bonds. Most political parties claimed they had no access to information about their donors. Some also refused to share information citing their donors’ wish to remain anonymous.