Electoral Bonds: Before 2019 State Polls, 72% Went to BJP, Who Were the Donors?

In three months before the 2019 state elections, BJP got electoral bonds worth Rs 200 crore.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received over five times more money in electoral bonds ahead of the 2019 Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections than the party in second position, which interestingly, was the Trinamool Congress (TMC), data from the State Bank of India (SBI) released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday, 14 March, has revealed.

Mentioned below is a breakup of electoral bonds encashed by political parties between 11 July 2019 and 22 October 2019:

• BJP: Rs 200.2 crore

• TMC: Rs 35.3 crore

• Shiv Sena: Rs 18 crore

• Nationalist Congress Party (NCP): Rs 12 crore

• Biju Janata Dal (BJD): Rs 10 crore

• Congress: 1.75 crore

Among the top donors were Infina Finance Private Limited, a Kotak family subsidiary, which donated Rs 25 crore in these three months. Other donors include Avees Trading and Finance which donated Rs 24 crore, NCC Limited which donated Rs 20 crore, and DLF Commercial developers which donated Rs 15 crore.

Companies Faced Probes

• NCC Limited, a construction company, which donated Rs 20 crore in July 2019, in the run-up to the elections, faced a probe by the Income Tax department in March 2018. After the elections, the company donated Rs 40 crores in March 2022. The company then bagged projects worth Rs 4,205 crore from central and state government agencies in September 2023.

• The DLF Group which, through two companies called DLF Commercial Developers and DLF Luxury Homes Limited, donated a sum of Rs 25 crore also faced probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2019. In July 2023, the company re-entered Mumbai's real estate market. The company executed a Securities Subscription and Shareholders' Agreement, through its subsidiary Pegeen Builders and Developers, to hold a 51 percent equity share capital in Trident Buildtech. Trident was developing a slum rehabilitation project in Andheri West. 

• Another donor Navyuga Engineering Company, which built the Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi which caved in resulting in 41 workers being trapped inside for days, was also among the top donors ahead of the elections. The company donated Rs 15 crore in the said time period. The company faced Income Tax raids in October 2018. In mid-2020, months after donating money in electoral bonds, the company bagged Rs 2,072 Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail link project.

• Among the other two big donors are SD Corporation Private Limited and Torrent Power Limited which donated Rs 10 Crore each. SD Corporation has been under the scanner of the Economic Offender's Wing (EOW) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group is seen as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since his days as Gujarat CM.

Since SBI hasn't revealed the unique alphanumeric code for each Electoral Bond, we won't be able to ascertain which company donated to which party.