Mayawati’s party, the CPI(M), was one of the parties that did not receive electoral bonds

Mayawati’s party tells pollster it has not received any funds through electoral bonds

New Delhi:

While some parties received donations worth crores of rupees through electoral bonds, the vast majority did not receive any funds through the now-defunct political funding scheme.

More than 500 recognized and unrecognized political parties have shared details of electoral bonds in sealed form with the Supreme Court.

The figures were submitted through the Electoral Commission and made public by the polling group on Sunday.

Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, a recognized national party, told the Election Commission that it had not received any funds through electoral bonds since the launch of the scheme.

The National People’s Party, which rules Meghalaya, is another national party that has not received donations through electoral bonds.

The National Conference of Recognized Political Parties in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has revealed that it received Rs 50 lakh from the Bharti Group through electoral bonds.

The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) revealed that it received Rs 50 lakh through electoral bonds from Alambic Pharma.

Left parties such as the CPI, CPI-Maoist, All India Forward and CPI-ML did not receive any electoral bond funds. They said that as a matter of principle they refused to donate through this channel.

Some registered but unrecognized political parties submitted submissions in handwritten notes on plain paper stating that they had not received any funds through voting bonds.

Some political parties active in various states such as Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, AIMIM, IAUDF, Zoram People’s Movement, Asom Gana Parishad, Bodoland People’s Front, The Kerala Congress (Mani), late Vijayakanth’s DMDK, INLD, Tamil Manila Congress do not accept donations through poll bonds.

On the other hand, some other smaller regional players like Goa Forward Party and MGP were awarded electoral bonds worth Rs 36 lakh and Rs 55 lakh respectively.

According to a previous report compiled by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore were sold between March 2018 and January 2024.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)