No details on 94% of poll bond donations as Big 5 stonewall | India News

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Sunday released data on electoral bonds that had been given to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover, but the new data showed that no donors’ details were revealed by the five biggest recipients — BJP, Congress, Trinamool, BRS and BJD, which together account for 87% of EB funds. All told, parties that gave no details accounted for over 94% of the total amount raised through EBs, while the two that fully revealed their donors – DMK and Goa Forward Party – account for barely 4%.

The SC has asked SBI why it did not provide details of the unique number of each bond, which would help match donor and recipient, but exactly when that data will be put out remains unclear, with the apex court to hear what SBI has to say on the issue on Monday.
With Sunday’s data, it is now possible to get a full picture of how much each party received through EBs since their inception till the SC shut down the scheme. BJP, with Rs 8,251 crore, got just a bit more than all other parties put together. Congress with Rs 1,952cr and Trinamool with Rs 1,717cr were a distant second and third.

Somewhere between the parties that draped themselves completely in a veil and those that fully opened the kimono were those that gave some details, including JD(S), RJD, AAP, NCP, JD(U) and SP. These parties – doing the ‘half monty’ – gave details only for the period between Jan and May 2019.

The reason that parties cited for not disclosing details (or in some cases disclosing some donors, but not others) varied considerably. BJP, for instance, wrote to EC saying the EB scheme was devised to provide anonymity to donors and hence it would not reveal their identity. Congress did not provide an explanation. NCP stated that it had not maintained records of each donor, since it wasn’t required to do so, but added that it was providing details “wherever possible”.

Even among the parties that did disclose some details for the period from Jan to May 2019, JD(U) and RJD did not reveal all the donors.
An interesting pattern in the revelations was that several parties got significant donations from firms or individuals based in states in which they have little or no presence. The details revealed on Sunday would only have whetted the appetite for a more comprehensive disclosure if and when SBI puts out details of the alpha numeric codes assigned to each EB.