BJP got 84% of electoral bonds bought by top 10 individuals

The top 10 individual donors bought electoral bonds worth ₹180.2 crore between April 12, 2019 and January 11, 2024

The top 10 individual donors bought electoral bonds worth ₹180.2 crore between April 12, 2019 and January 11, 2024, and of this, ₹152.2 crore or 84.5% was donated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to the latest tranche of data released by the Election Commission on Thursday.

Electoral bonds had been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties. (Representative Image)

The second biggest recipient was the Trinamool Congress (TMC) which got ₹16.2 crore or about 9% of the money. The third biggest was the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) with ₹5 crore.

The top donor, ArcelorMittal’s chairperson Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, bought bonds worth ₹35 crore, all of which were donated to the BJP.

The second top individual donor was Laxmi Das Vallabhdas Merchant, who donated all his ₹25 crore to the BJP in November 2023.

According to his Linkedin profile, Merchant is the Group Controller of Reliance Industries Ltd, and has been at the company for more than 33 years.

Of the top 10 individuals, Mittal, Merchant, KR Raja JT, Inder Thakurdas Jaisinghani, Rahul Jagannath Joshi and his son Harmesh Rahul Joshi, Raju Kumar Sharma, Saurabh Gupta, and Anita Hemant Shah donated only to the BJP.

Jaisinghani is the chairperson and managing director of Polycab India, the country’s largest manufacturer of wires and cables. The Joshi father-son duo are directors on the boards of multiple freight companies.

IndiGo’s Rahul Bhatia donated ₹16.2 crore to the TMC, and ₹3.8 crore to the Nationalist Congress Party.

Separately, IndiGo and related entities donated ₹31 crore to the BJP in May 2019, and ₹5 crore to the Congress in April 2023

Rajesh Mannalal Agrawal, the CEO of Ajanta Pharma, donated a total of ₹ 13 crore --- ₹5 crore each to the BJP and the BRS, and ₹3 crore to Congress. Ajanta Pharma separately donated ₹3 crore to the BJP and ₹1 crore to the Congress.

Another significant individual donor, Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, ranked 12th in the list of individual donors and donated ₹6 crore --- ₹4 crore to BJP, and ₹1 crore each to the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress.