Electoral bonds: As the Election Commission published the data on the missing piece of Electoral bonds -- unique numbers matching the donors with the political parties which received the contribution, the companies that were the biggest donors to the parties came to the fore. Vedanta Ltd. was the biggest donor of electoral bonds for Congress which was the third largest beneficiary of the electoral bonds scheme, followed by KCR’s BRS whose biggest donor was Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd. (MEIL).
Vedanta Limited contributed Rs 125 crore out of the Rs 1422 crore that the Congress encashed in total. Others which contributed to Congress include Western UP Power Transmission Company limited which is a subsidiary of MEIL (Rs 110 crore), and MKJ Enterprises (Rs 91.6 crore).
What about other parties?
KCR’s BRS encashed Rs 1214 crore in total, out of which Rs 195 crore was given by MEIL, Rs 94 crore from Yashodha Supmer Speciality Hospital, and Rs 50 crore from Chennai Green Woods Pvt. Ltd.
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress which encashed Rs 1609.50 crore through electoral bonds, received Rs 542 crore from Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming and Hotel Services. Haldia Energy Limited ranked second as the largest donor to the party with Rs 281 crore.
Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal, which encashed a total of Rs 775 crore, out of which Essel Mining contributed Rs 174.5 crore, Jindal Steel and Power limited contributed Rs 100 crore and Utkal Alumina International Limited gave Rs 70 crore.
The SBI had earlier submitted two lists to the Election Commission which were published on the website on March 14. In the information put out, names of donors, bonds purchased and the bonds encashed by the political parties.
