Electoral bonds data: TMC at No. 2 with Rs 1,609 crore, bond redemption rose after Assembly poll win

Redemption of electoral bonds by the Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC), the second largest recipient of such donations to political parties between April 2019 and January 2024, increased after the party swept the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021.

According to data uploaded by the Election Commission, the AITMC redeemed electoral bonds totalling Rs 1609 crore between April 2019 and January 2024.

In October-November 2020 and January 2021, the party redeemed 65 electoral bonds worth Rs 43.4 crore – this was also the first year of the Covid pandemic.

Assembly elections were held in West Bengal between March 27 and April 29, 2021. In April, the AITMC redeemed 171 electoral bonds worth Rs 55.44 crore – up from the months preceding the elections.

But in July, after the party rode back to power at the head of a landslide – the election results were declared on May 2 – it redeemed 337 electoral bonds totalling Rs 107.56 crore.

In October 2021, the redemptions totalled Rs 141.92 crore and in January 2022, it was Rs 224 crore. Thereafter, there was a brief dip in the redemption of poll bonds. In April 2022, the AIMTC redeemed bonds of Rs 18 crore. In July 2022, that figure rose to Rs 66.5 crore. And in October 2022, the party redeemed poll bonds totalling Rs 143 crore.