The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the SBI to publish electoral bond numbers, revealing crucial link between donors and political parties.
The apex court categorically stated that the national lender had to disclose electoral bonds numbers as well, in addition to the details it has already disclosed regarding the purchase and redemption of the bonds.
While it is already known that the ruling BJP received the highest amount of donation of over Rs 6,000 crore followed by the Congress party, the data dump only disclosed the amount donated by each entity or individual. It does not say who donated to which party.
Among the known corporates, Agarwal's Vedanta Ltd bought Rs 398 crore worth of bonds, while Sunil Mittal's three companies together purchased a total of Rs 246 crore worth of bonds.
Steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal bought Rs 35 crore worth of bonds in his individual capacity. Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which has bagged contracts of several large infrastructure projects, bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore.
While most of the bonds have been issued in the name of political parties, the donations made to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were made in the name of 'President, All India Congress Committee' and 'Adyaksha Samajvadi Party'.
Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India, which was the authorised seller of electoral bonds, had shared the data with the poll panel on March 12.
The top court had given the Election Commission time till 5 pm of March 15 to upload the data on its website.