10 regional parties encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 900 crore before April 12, 2019

Ten regional parties, most of whom were in power in their respective states, received a combined donation of about Rs 900 crore through electoral bonds prior to April 12, 2019, the date after which the details of all poll bonds redeemed by political parties were made available earlier this week.

On Sunday, the Election Commission made public the data relating to electoral bonds as returned by the Supreme Court registry.

Eight of the 10 regional parties — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP in Delhi), Telugu Desam Party (TDP in Andhra Pradesh), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC in West Bengal), Biju Janata Dal (BJD in Odisha), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS— erstwhile TRS in Telangana), Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF in Sikkim), Janata Dal (United) (JD-U in Bihar), and Shiv Sena (undivided in Maharashtra) — were in power during the period between the inception of the electoral bonds scheme in early 2018 and April 12, 2019. The only exceptions were Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh) and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP in Maharashtra).

Of these 10 regional parties, the BJD reported receiving the highest amount of Rs 235 crore between July 16, 2018 and April 9, 2019, followed by the BRS, which redeemed electoral bonds worth Rs 192.6 crore between October 11, 2018 and April 10, 2019. Two other parties —YSRCP (Rs 165.8 crore) and TDP (Rs 101.8 crore) — redeemed bonds over Rs 100 crore each before April 12, 2019. The Trinamool Congress encashed bonds worth Rs 98.28 crore between July 16, 2018 and April 11, 2019.

The JD(U) reported that it redeemed 10 electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore before April 12, 2019. These bonds were bought from SBI’s Kolkata branch on April 2, 2019. In a letter to the EC on May 30,