Since 2018, BJP got 54.8% of bonds encashed: Data

In 25 phases between March 2018 and March 2023, electoral bonds worth ₹11,984.91 crore were encashed with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) receiving 54.8%, or ₹6,566.12 crore, according to data furnished by political parties to the Election Commission of India and phase-wise data collated by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

- Aditi Agrawal and Sreedev Krishnakumar

The BJP's biggest rival, the Indian National Congress, received 9.4% or ₹1,123.31 crore of all bonds encashed until March 2023. The Trinamool Congress, which ceased to be a national party in April 2023, received 9.1% or ₹1,092.98 crore. These three parties accounted for 73.3% of all electoral bonds encashed until March 2023.

In all, electoral bonds worth 16,518 crore were purchased in the 30 phases of sale of electoral bonds between March 2018 and January 2024, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary had informed the Lok Sabha on February 5 in a written reply. Of this, 219 bonds worth nearly 26 crore have not been encashed and have thus been transferred to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF), according to RTI replies received by transparency activist Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra.

Expectedly, election years see more activity. In 2019-20 for instance, electoral bonds worth ₹3,429.559 crore were encashed, of which the BJP received 74.5% and the Congress 9.3%. And in 2018-19 (in the run up to the national elections; they were announced in March 2019, which falls in 2018-19, but conducted in April and May 2019, which fall in 2019-20), bonds worth ₹2,540 crore were encashed.