How much money did political parties get through electoral bonds? Supreme Court judgment reveals

The Supreme Court’s judgment on Thursday striking down the Electoral Bonds Scheme has revealed data on how much money different political parties in India received through the anonymous donations since 2017-18..The annual audit reports over the last six years revealed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the highest amount of anonymous donations - over ₹6,566 crore.The Indian National Congress is second on the list, with a comparatively lower amount of ₹1,123 crore in its kitty.All India Trinamool Congress also received ₹1,092 crore since 2017. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was the only national party which did not accept donations through electoral bonds..Justice Sanjiv Khanna in his separate but concurring opinion also analyzed the data produced before the Court, mostly by the petitioners, and what was available on the website of Election Commission of India (ECI).Below is the detailed break-up of the donations received by various political parties through electoral bonds since 2017..One of the main assertions before the Constitution Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was that a larger portion of the donations was going to the ruling party at the Centre.The data revealed that this apprehension was correct..“It is clear from the available data that the majority of contribution through Bonds has gone to political parties which are ruling parties in the Centre and the States,” Justice Khanna said..The petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms had also submitted a table to showcase party-wise donations received from corporate houses by the national parties. This table again showed BJP taking most of the corporate donations..Over 54 per cent of the electoral bonds were sold in the denomination of ₹1 crore, followed by ₹10 lakh and a certain percentage of ₹1 lakh and below. “Analysis of this data shows that more than 50% of the Bonds in number, and 94% of the Bonds in value terms were for ₹1 crore. This supports our reasoning and conclusion on the application of the doctrine of proportionality. This is indicative of the quantum of corporate funding through the anonymous Bonds,” said Justice Khanna..The data also showed that the share of income from unknown sources for national parties rose from 66 per cent during the years 2014-15 to 2016-17 to 72 per cent during the years 2018-19 to 2021-22.The total income of the national political parties without other known sources increased from ₹3,864 crore during the years 2014-15 to 2016-17 to ₹11,829 crore during the years 2018-19 to 2021-22.In total, the income from the Electoral Bonds Scheme between 2018-19 to 2021-22 constituted 58 per cent of the total income of the national political parties..Electoral Bonds Judgment: Why Supreme Court said no to anonymous political donations