Vedanta, Airtel, Essel among top funders of Indian political parties in last 5 yrs, data shows (updated)

RPSG Ventures

14/03/2024 18:01

(Adds details, graphic)
       NEW DELHI, March 14 (Reuters) - Some of India's biggest
companies, including Vedanta Ltd  VDAN.NS , Bharti Airtel
 BRTI.NS , RPSG Group and Essel Mining were among the country's
top political funders over the last five years under a
now-scrapped opaque political funding system, official data
showed on Thursday.    
    The information was made public by the Election Commission
of India following an order on Monday from the country's top
court, just days before a national election is due to be called.
    The political funding mechanism introduced in 2017 allowed
companies and individuals to donate unlimited amounts
anonymously to political parties. 
    The funding system, called Electoral Bonds, was challenged
by opposition lawmakers and a civil society group on the grounds
that it hindered the public's right to know who had given money
to political parties.
    The Supreme Court banned Electoral Bonds last month, calling
them "unconstitutional".
    Under the system, a person or company could buy bonds from
government-owned State Bank of India  SBI.NS  and donate them to
a political party.    
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
was the largest beneficiary of these bonds, which were
donations, garnering 55% of the bonds worth 120 billion rupees
($1.45 billion) donated between January 2018 and January 2024 by
people and companies.
    The decision to scrap the funding system was seen as a
setback for the BJP as well as other main political parties as
it came ahead of the national election due to be held by May.
    SBI told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it had sold a
total of 22,217 electoral bonds of various denominations of
which 22,030 were cashed in by political parties between April
1, 2019 and Feb. 15, 2024.
        
  
        
  
        A list of the top 20 electoral bond buyers compiled by
Reuters showed lottery and gaming firm Future Gaming and Hotel
Services topping the list with a total donation of 13.68 billion
rupees.
    Megha Engineering and Infrastructures, an engineering and
construction firm based in the southern city of Hyderabad, came
second at 9.66 billion rupees.
    It was followed by logistics firm Qwik Supply Chain, natural
resources giant Vedanta  VDAN.NS  and Haldia Energy.
    Reuters emailed the top 10 businesses on the list seeking
comment but there was no immediate response from any outside
business hours.
                
($1 = 82.9200 Indian rupees)

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Top buyers of India's Electoral Bonds    https://reut.rs/3veYx1t
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 (Reporting by Bengaluru and New Delhi bureaux; Writing by YP
Rajesh and Krishn Kaushik; Editing by Susan Fenton)
 ((Krishn.Kaushik@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8527322283;))