Electoral bonds worth over ₹16K crore sold so far; BJP got in excess of ₹6.5K crore till last fiscal

Electoral bonds worth over ₹16,000 crore have been contributed to political parties, with the BJP receiving the majority.

Electoral bonds have accounted for more than ₹16,000 crore worth funds contributed to various political parties so far, a lion's share is estimated to have gone to the BJP, data shows.

All political parties put together received more than ₹12,000 crore till last fiscal since the introduction of the now-annulled electoral bond scheme in 2018, of which the ruling BJP got nearly 55% or ₹6,565 crore, according to the data available with Election Commission and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

While the party-wise data for the current fiscal 2023-24 would be available later after they file annual audit reports for the year, ADR put the collective amount of funds generated through sale of electoral bonds between March 2018 and January 2024 at ₹16,518.11 crore.

On an average, these bonds are estimated to account for over half of total contributions received by the parties, though it is more than 90% in case of some regional parties that are in power in their States.

In case of the BJP as well, electoral bonds account for more than half of its overall income.

The BJP replaced Congress as the country's richest party since the last year of UPA-II. It had total income of ₹673.8 crore in fiscal year 2013-14, as against ₹598 crore of the Congress.

Since then, BJP's income has mostly been rising while the Congress has seen its fortunes decline except for a few years in between.