In the general elections of 2019, 84% of electoral bonds were captured by the BJP

The State Bank of India’s data, which was released on Thursday, provides some insight into the exceptional capacity of the Bharatiya Janata Party to gather money during difficult times, even if it does not provide much light on the trend of fund-raising by parties prior to April 2019.

According to SBI statistics, the party swept up an astounding 84% of all funding that came in via bonds during the 2019 elections.

Based on the figures, the April–May 2019 election window accounted for approximately 20% of all inflows, even though it spanned just around 2.8% of the available data period.

This was mostly due to the fact that parties actively solicit money from their supporters during elections as they often need funds at such times.

Based on the data, it was evident who the money guys were placing their bets on.

The BJP received Rs 1,772 crore, or 83.77%, of the Rs 2,115 crore that was reported to have been received during the April–May period.

With only 7.97%, or Rs 169 crore, the Indian National Congress—the major opposition—came in a distant second.

With 2.45% of the total earnings, or Rs 52 crore, Trinamool Congress came in third position. Bharat Rashtra Samithi came in second with 1.76%.

With 0.73%, Shiv Sena ranked fifth, followed by Samajwadi Party and AIADMK, both of which had just over 0.5 percent.

Out of this Rs 2115 crore, donor data is only accessible for Rs 1,492 crore as of April 12; this is despite the fact that the amount includes almost all of the inflows throughout the April–May electoral bonds window.

In contrast to other financial products, SBI does not provide election bonds for sale year-round. Rather, it provides an opportunity for businesses to give to their preferred parties every two months during the so-called windows, which are typically 30 to 40 days long.

Companies transferred the remaining 623 crore before to April 12 but parties claimed them on or after that date.

It is worth noting that throughout the five-year period of 2019-24, the proportion of the BJP decreased to about 50% as other parties began to properly use the bonds system.

Fascinatingly, given that the Supreme Court has shut off the electoral bonds pipeline, it is unclear what will happen to parties during the 2024 election season.