Electoral Bonds: Trinamool Biggest Beneficiary Of 'Lottery King' Donor

Trinamool Congress got at least Rs 540 crore worth of electoral bonds from Future Gaming, making it the biggest beneficiary of donations made by 'lottery king' Santiago Martin, who also donated to DMK, YSR Congress, BJP and Congress, according to the SBI data released Thursday by the Election Commission.

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and Sikkim Democratic Front also got some funds from the biggest purchaser of the electoral bonds, which was started by the BJP government in March 2018 and scrapped last month.

While a plethora of well-known corporates bought the bonds when the scheme was alive, the biggest donor to political parties was Future Gaming, which purchased bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore.

Besides Trinamool Congress, Future Gaming gave Rs 509 crore to Tamil Nadu's ruling party DMK, nearly Rs 160 crore to Andhra Pradesh's YSR Congress Party, Rs 100 crore to BJP and Rs 50 crore to Congress.

The two parties of Sikkim, one of the few states where lottery is legal, together got less than Rs 10 crore from Future Gaming.

The second-biggest donor is known to be Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which has given Rs 966 crore to various parties including BJP, Bharat Rashtra Samiti and DMK.

Qwik Supply, the third largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds, bought Rs 410 crore in bonds between 2021-22 and 2023-24 and gave Rs 395 crore to the BJP and Rs 25 crore to the Shiv Sena.

BJP was the major receiver of funds from big corporate groups like Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, Muthoot, Bajaj Auto, Jindal Group and TVS Motor.

The Election Commission on Thursday made public a fresh data set of electoral bonds, including their alpha-numeric numbers that can help match their purchasers with the political parties that received the funds.

Vedanta group gave donations to BJP Congress, BJD and TMC while Bharti Airtel donated to BJP, RJD, SAD, Congress, and Bihar Pradesh Janta Dal (United).

Muthoot donated to BJP, NCP Maharashtra Pradesh, Bajaj group to BJP and AAP Apollo Tyres to Congress, and Keventers to BJP and Congress.

Industrialist Lakshmi Niwas Mittal donated to the BJP, while Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw donated to BJP, TMC and Congress. Rungta Sons Private Limited donated to Congress, BJP, TMC and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha.

Pharmaceutical companies Piramal Capital and Sun Pharma donated to the BJP while Torrent Pharmaceutical Limited donated to the BJP, AAP and Congress, Natco Pharma gave BJP, TDP, TMC and BRS.