Electoral bonds | Biggest beneficiaries claim inability to reveal donor names

Large political parties like BJP and Congress have not disclosed electoral bond donors, citing lack of access to information.

Most large recipients of funding via electoral bonds, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, and the Trinamool Congress have not shared any details about their donors, in submissions made to the Election Commission of India (ECI) under the direction of the Supreme Court in April 2019 and November 2023.

This came to light on Sunday when the ECI published the data previously submitted to it by political parties in sealed covers under the top court’s directions. In fact, only a handful of parties have revealed their electoral bond donors’ identities in their entirety; these parties include the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and Janata Dal (Secular).

The BJP, the largest recipient of electoral bonds, justified its move not to reveal the names of donors by citing the rules framed under the electoral bonds scheme that the SC has struck down as unconstitutional. These rules, it said, precluded parties from having to maintain donor details, and so it claimed that it had not maintained a record of these particulars.

Some of the other parties that did not supply donor details also noted that the scheme was designed in such a way that they did not have ready access to donor information, as these were essentially bearer bonds. The details will only be available with the authorised bond issuer, the State Bank of India (SBI), they said.

For full coverage | Making sense of the electoral bonds data

The Congress and Trinamool Congress, in their 2019 disclosures, said that they had specifically asked the SBI to provide them with details of the donors’ names. In response to the former’s request, the SBI had written back in June 2019, saying, “The particulars of a donated EB [electoral bond] is available with the respective donee/political party.”

In their updated disclosures for the period till September 2023, the Trinamool Congress again said that the information on donors was only available with the SBI, while the Congress noted that it had requested the bank yet again to provide this information to the ECI in compliance with the SC’s directions. It is not clear if the SBI responded again to that missive from the Congress.