Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR whose managing director is the well known lottery magnate Santiago Martin, is the largest donor to political parties for the period April 12, 2019 to January 24, 2024, the electoral bonds data released by the Election Commission, on receipt from the State Bank of India, revealed.
The firm donated a cumulative sum of ₹1,368 crore in electoral bonds during this period. Incidentally, the Enforcement Directorate had attached ₹411 crore in the bank accounts of the firm and other companies in March 2022 and had later filed a prosecution complaint against it under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 before the PMLA Court, Kolkata on September 09, 2023.
The table shows the donors who purchased Electoral Bonds, total amount purchased in ₹ crore.
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Twenty two firms donated more than ₹100 crore during this period. Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL), headquartered in Hyderabad, was second on the list in terms of the total donations at ₹966 crore. MEIL group’s Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited also donated ₹220 crore. It was followed by Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited - ₹410 crore, Haldia Energy Limited (₹377 crore), Vedanta Limited (₹375.65 crore), Essel Mining and Industries Limited (₹224.45 crore), Bharti Airtel Limited (₹198 crore) and Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd. (₹195 crore) and MKJ group of companies ₹192 crore) to round up the top 10 donors in this period.
Electoral bonds data | BJP received ₹6,060 crore, highest among all parties
In total, electoral bonds worth over ₹12,155 crore were purchased by donors during this period and more than ₹12,769 crore were encashed by all the parties in the period.
The information has been put up in public domain by the Election Commission of India (ECI) after The State Bank of India (SBI) had disclosed this information on March 12. The Supreme Court had directed the ECI to host this information on its website by March 15.
The SBI supplied this data in two sets. The first set contains the date of purchase of each Electoral Bond, the name of the purchaser of the bond, and the denomination of the bond purchased.
Watch our Data video | Electoral bonds banned: Which party benefitted the most while it existed?
