EC releases electoral bond data to the public
The Election Commission released the electoral bond data to the public on Thursday. On March 12, the State Bank of India gave the poll panel access to the data per an order from the Supreme Court. The Election Commission was given until March 15 at 5 p.m. by the highest court to submit the data on its website. The information on “Disclosure of Electoral Bonds Submitted by SBI” has been divided into two sections by the EC.
The poll panel’s data indicates that Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Vedanta Ltd., Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun, and Sun Pharma are among the companies that purchased electoral bonds.
The data indicates that the following political parties have redeemed electoral bonds: BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party.
A five-judge Constitution bench struck down the Center’s electoral bonds program, which permitted anonymous political finance, in a historic decision rendered on February 15. The court declared the program “unconstitutional” and required the EC to disclose the names, amounts, and beneficiaries of all contributors.
