Tue. Oct 22nd, 2024

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The top 10 individual donors bought electoral bonds worth 180.2 crore between April 12, 2019 and January 11, 2024, and of this, 152.2 crore or 84.5% was donated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to the latest tranche of data released by the Election Commission on Thursday.

Electoral bonds had been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties. (Representative Image)
Electoral bonds had been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties. (Representative Image)

The second biggest recipient was the Trinamool Congress (TMC) which got 16.2 crore or about 9% of the money. The third biggest was the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) with 5 crore.

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The top donor, ArcelorMittal’s chairperson Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, bought bonds worth 35 crore, all of which were donated to the BJP.

Read more: Electoral bonds: ‘Lottery king’ top donor for Opposition, BJP got most from this firm

The second top individual donor was Laxmi Das Vallabhdas Merchant, who donated all his 25 crore to the BJP in November 2023.

According to his Linkedin profile, Merchant is the Group Controller of Reliance Industries Ltd, and has been at the company for more than 33 years.

Of the top 10 individuals, Mittal, Merchant, KR Raja JT, Inder Thakurdas Jaisinghani, Rahul Jagannath Joshi and his son Harmesh Rahul Joshi, Raju Kumar Sharma, Saurabh Gupta, and Anita Hemant Shah donated only to the BJP.

Read more: SBI submits all details of electoral bonds with unique numbers to Election Commission

Jaisinghani is the chairperson and managing director of Polycab India, the country’s largest manufacturer of wires and cables. The Joshi father-son duo are directors on the boards of multiple freight companies.

IndiGo’s Rahul Bhatia donated 16.2 crore to the TMC, and 3.8 crore to the Nationalist Congress Party.

Separately, IndiGo and related entities donated 31 crore to the BJP in May 2019, and 5 crore to the Congress in April 2023

Rajesh Mannalal Agrawal, the CEO of Ajanta Pharma, donated a total of 13 crore — 5 crore each to the BJP and the BRS, and 3 crore to Congress. Ajanta Pharma separately donated 3 crore to the BJP and 1 crore to the Congress.

Read more: Congress releases third list of Lok Sabha candidates, 56 names included

Another significant individual donor, Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, ranked 12th in the list of individual donors and donated 6 crore — 4 crore to BJP, and 1 crore each to the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress.

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