17 March,2024 04:50 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
Representation image. File pic
The Election Commission on Sunday made public fresh data on electoral bonds, which was previously submitted to the Supreme Court in sealed covers, following a directive from the apex court to make it available to the public.
According to the new details, BJP encashed electoral bonds totalling Rs 6,986.5 crore. The highest amount received by the ruling party was in 2019-20 worth Rs 2,555 crore. Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds, ANI report said.
DMK received Rs 656.5 crore through electoral bonds, including Rs 509 crore from lottery king Santiago Martin's Future Gaming. The full list can be obtained from the election commission's website https://www.eci.gov.in/candidate-politicalparty
Notably, this information pertains to transactions that occurred before April 12, 2019, while details of electoral bonds issued after this date were disclosed by the election commission last week.
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"The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website," the poll panel said in a statement.
The ECI had submitted it in the sealed covers to the Supreme Court and was later asked to put them in the public domain.
The Supreme Court, in a ruling in February, struck down the Centre's Electoral Bond Scheme, which allowed for anonymous funding to political parties, and ordered the SBI to stop issuing Electoral Bonds immediately. It had asked SBI to furnish details of each electoral bond encashed by parties, including the date of encashment and the denomination of the bond.
On Monday, the top court dismissed an application of SBI seeking an extension of time till June 30 to submit details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission, asking the bank to disclose the details by March 12.
The apex court also directed the poll panel to compile the information to be furnished by the SBI and publish the details on its official website no later than March 15, 2024, by 5 pm.
(With ANI inputs)
