Post to Anonymous, political parties explain how they get electoral bonds

Several political parties refuse to reveal details of electoral bond donors

New Delhi:

Some parties have declined to reveal details of electoral bond donors, citing various legal requirements, while others have said they received the financing instruments through “drop boxes” or unnamed mail.

The DMK gets most of its donations from a lottery company, which contacted its donors seeking details of electoral bonds, as ordered by the Supreme Court in 2019.

The BJP cited the Representation of the People Act, 1951 amendment and relevant sections of the Reserve Bank of India Act and the Income Tax Act for not disclosing its donors.

“We formally propose that the purpose of introducing electoral bonds is to bring only political funds under the ambit of political funding while protecting the donors from any consequences arising therefrom,” the BJP said in a letter to the Election Commission.

Congress has sent a letter to the State Bank of India (SBI) seeking details of electoral bond donors, amount, bank account and date of crediting.

Responding to the Congress, SBI said details of electoral bonds have been provided to political parties and shared bank account statements shared with the committee.

The Samajwadi Party shared details of bonds of relatively small amounts of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh but only mentioned that 10 bonds of Rs 1 crore each were received through post without naming names.

The DMK, which gets nearly 77% of its funding from lottery king Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming, said it had contacted the party’s donors for details of their donations.

“The scheme also does not require donor details to be provided to recipients…Nonetheless, as directed by the Supreme Court, we contacted our donors and we were able to collect details from them,” DMK said.

The Telugu Desam Party mentioned “not easily available” in a column listing the names of donors.

The Trinamool Congress said the electoral bonds were sent to the party office and “put in the drop box”. The party said some of the bonds were sent via couriers from various people wishing to support the party, many of whom preferred to remain anonymous.

The National Communist Party (NCP), then led by Sharad Pawar, said it could not provide details of the donors for each bond as the party did not keep details or issue any receipts.

In a letter to the Election Commission, the NCP said several of its officials were busy with campaigning. “Wherever possible we will include the names of those through whom the party receives bonds,” the NCP said.

The Goa unit of the Congress party has contacted its donors VM Salgaonkar and Brothers for details of electoral bonds worth Rs 30 lakh given to the party.

The RJD said that details about the donation worth Rs 1.5 lakh were not yet known.

Nitish Kumar-led UP told the Election Commission that an envelope containing 2019 electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore was handed to its office, which was redeemed by the party.

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