Electoral Bonds Data: DMK Got Rs 509 Crore From Santiago Martin's Future Gaming

DMK, AIADMK, and JD(S) are some of the parties that revealed the names of the donors in new data released by ECI.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DM), the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, had received Rs 509 crore worth of electoral bonds from Future Gaming and Hotel Services – the biggest donor of electoral bonds, which donated Rs 1,368 crore in total – between October 2020 and April 2023.

(Photo: The Quint)

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, had received Rs 509 crore worth of electoral bonds from Future Gaming and Hotel Services – the biggest donor of electoral bonds, which donated Rs 1,368 crore in total – between October 2020 and April 2023.

The party, in total, received Rs 656.5 crore worth of electoral bonds from April 2019 to April 2023.

This was revealed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday, 17 March, as it uploaded the sealed cover data provided by various political parties on its website, as per the Supreme Court's order.

Among the major political parties that encashed electoral bonds, the DMK, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the Janata Dal (Secular), and a few others mentioned the names of the donors in their respective sealed cover documents.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, Trinamool Congress, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, and others have not revealed the names of the donors as yet.

The DMK, in the sealed cover documents, stated: "The scheme does not require the details of the donor to be furnished to the donee. Under these circumstances, the donors did not strictly adhere to the requirement of furnishing their details whenever they handed over the electoral bonds to us. Be that as it may, following the directions of Hon'ble Supreme Court, we contacted our donors and we were able to collect the details from them."

Let's take a look at who donated to these parties and when.

Who Were DMK's Donors?

From the 'Lottery King' Santiago Martin's Future Gaming, the party received Rs 60 crore in the year 2020-21, Rs 249 crore in 2021-22, Rs 160 crore in 2022-23, and Rs 40 crore from 2023 to date.

Apart from Future Gaming, the DMK also appears to have received electoral bond donations to the tune of Rs 105 crore from Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL). In the document, the party has referred to the firm as "Mega Infrastructure".

The party received Rs 20 crore from MEIL in 2019-20, Rs 20 crore in 2020-21, Rs 40 crore in 2021-22, and Rs 25 crore in 2022-23.

The other donors of the party include India Cements (Rs 14 crore), LMW (Rs 1.5 crore), Ramco Cements (Rs 5 crore), Apollo (Rs 1 crore), Triveni (Rs 8 crore), Birla (Rs 1 crore), IRB (Rs 2 crore), and Sun Network (Rs 10 crore).

In total, the party received Rs 656.5 crore – Rs 45.5 crore in 2019-20, Rs 80 crore in 2020-21, Rs 306 crore in 2021-22, Rs 185 crore in 2022-23, and Rs 40 crore from 2023 to date.

The party, however, has not revealed any data prior to 15 April 2019.

Who Were AIADMK's Donors?

The AIADMK, the Opposition party in Tamil Nadu, received Rs 6.05 crore in electoral bonds – and the party's primary donor was Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited, which donated Rs 5 crore in 2019.

The Chennai Super Kings IPL team is owned by industrialist N Srinivasan's India Cements. India Cements had also donated to the DMK in 2019.

The other donors of the party include Lakshmi Machine Works Limited, which donated Rs 1 crore in 2019, and Gopal Srinivasan, the CMD of TV Capital Funds, who donated Rs 5 lakh in 2019.

The AIADMK has not revealed any data regarding electoral bonds in the year 2018. The party also did not receive any donations after April 2019, as per the data.

Who Were the Donors of JD(S)?

As per the previously released data, the JD(S) in Karnataka received Rs 43.5 crore as electoral bonds. But the new data shows what it got in the 2018-19 period, as well as who the highest donors are.

The party's highest donor is MEIL, which donated Rs 50 crore in 2019 (Rs 10 crore) and 2023 (Rs 40 crore). Its second-highest donor is the Embassy Group of Companies, which donated Rs 22 crore in 2018.

Other donors include Narayana Murthy's Infosys Technologies (Rs 1 crore), Health Care Global Enterprises (Rs 25 lakh), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw's Biocon (Rs 2.5 crore), Shahi Exports (Rs 1.5 crore), Shankaranarayana Constructions (Rs 5 crore), JSW Steel (Rs 5 crore), Amar Raj Groups (Rs 2 crore), and Aditya Birla Group (Rs 50 lakh).

In total, the party received Rs 89.75 crore as earnings through electoral bonds.

However, Biocon's founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw posted on X on Monday, 18 March, that the pharmaceutical company didn't make any political donation to JD(S).

"Would like to clarify that Biocon did not make any political donation to JDS or any other party for elections. At a personal level I purchased electoral bonds which I donated to JDS & several parties. My donations were nominal on the principle of funding election campaigns with white money," she said.