57% vs 10%: BJP vs Congress share in electoral bond funds

In the six years since the electoral bonds scheme was introduced, more than half, or 57%, of the funds extended through bonds have gone to the BJP. The party, as per its declarations to the Election Commission, received Rs 5,271.97 crore via bonds between 2017-2022. The Congress was a distant second at Rs 952.29 crore.

The EC is yet to publish the annual reports of parties for the financial year 2022-2023.

The Supreme Court on Thursday held the changes made in the law to introduce the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional, in a unanimous verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the legal validity of the Centre’s scheme which allowed for anonymous funding to political parties.

A five-judge Constitution Bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud also directed that “the issuing bank shall herewith stop the issuance of electoral bonds” and asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to “submit details of the electoral bonds purchased since the interim order of the court dated April 12, 2019, till date to the Election Commission of India (ECI)”.

The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said, “The deletion of the proviso to Section 182(1) of the Companies Act, permitting unlimited corporate funding to political parties is arbitrary and violative of Article 14”.

Under the scheme, notified by the Narendra Modi government on January 2, 2018, electoral bonds could be purchased by any citizen of India or entity incorporated or established in India. An individual can buy electoral bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.

It was pitched as an alternative to cash donations and as a way to increase transparency in political funding. In the period between 2017-2018