Electoral Bonds Data Live Updates: The Election Commission of India (ECI) released the list of entities involved in the sales and purchase of contentious electoral bonds on Thursday. The ECI made the data public on its website following the Supreme Court's order. The top court on Tuesday had directed the Election Commission to publish details of the now-scrapped electoral bonds and political parties that redeemed them on Thursday. The State Bank of India (SBI) submitted the data on electoral bonds to the electoral panel body on 12 March after the SC rejected its plea to give the bank the more time to submit details. The SC in its February order gave a landmark judgement by scrapping the Electoral Bonds scheme. The court called it “unconstitutional".
Electoral Bonds Data Live: Know about top donor Future Gaming and Hotel Services boss Santiago Martin
In the disclosed list of entities that procured electoral bonds for contributions to political parties, an unknown company called Future Gaming and Hotel Services, stood out as largest buyer of the bonds.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services' contributions to the Electoral Bonds Scheme (EBS) totalled ₹1,368 crore from 2019 to 2024.
The Future Gaming and Hotel Services is helmed by "Lottery King" Santiago Martin.
Martin, a labourer in Yangon, Myanmar, returned to India in 1988. He established a lottery enterprise in Tamil Nadu in the same year.
Over time, he expanded his businesses in Karnataka, Kerala, as well as, in Bhutan and Nepal.
Martin also became the President of the All India Federation of Lottery Trade and Allied Industries. His Future Gaming Solutions India, gained membership in the esteemed World Lottery Association.
Electoral Bonds Data Live: Congress third-highest recipient of bonds
Congress received ₹1,422 crore of funding from April 2019 to January this year-11% of the total funding.
Electoral Bonds Data Live: Congress flags discrepancies in data
The Congress party has flagged discrepancies in the electoral bonds data published by the Election Commission on its official website on Thursday.
According to Amitabh Dubey, in charge of research and monitoring in the Congress' communication department, the donors file has 18,871 entries, and the recipient's file has 20,421 entries.
He asked, "Why the discrepancy?" and quoted SBI.
Dubey also said that the electoral bond scheme began in 2017, but the data presented began in April 2019.
Electoral Bonds Data Live: Know about top donor Future Gaming and Hotel Services boss Santiago Martin
In the disclosed list of entities that procured electoral bonds for contributions to political parties, an unknown company called Future Gaming and Hotel Services, stood out as largest buyer of the bonds.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services' contributions to the Electoral Bonds Scheme (EBS) totalled ₹1,368 crore from 2019 to 2024.
The Future Gaming and Hotel Services is helmed by "Lottery King" Santiago Martin.
Martin, a labourer in Yangon, Myanmar, returned to India in 1988. He established a lottery enterprise in Tamil Nadu in the same year.
Over time, he expanded his businesses in Karnataka, Kerala, as well as, in Bhutan and Nepal.
Martin also became the President of the All India Federation of Lottery Trade and Allied Industries. His Future Gaming Solutions India, gained membership in the esteemed World Lottery Association.
Electoral Bonds Data Live Updates: From Vedanta to Airtel, list of top donors to political parties
Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Anand Mahindra-led Mahindra & Mahindra are among the top-donors that donated funds to political parties as per the Election Commission's documents.
The other donors are-Finolex Cables Ltd, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Edelweiss Housing Finance Ltd, GHCL Ltd, Jindal Poly Films Limited, ITC Limited, Grasim Industries Limited PR, Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited, Piramal Enterprises Ltd, Muthoot Finance Limited, Pegasus Properties Private Limited, Bajaj Finance Ltd, Apollo Tyres Limited and SpiceJet Limited.
JK Cement Ltd, DLF Commercial Developers Limited, Avon Cycles Ltd, Zydus Healthcare Limited, Cipla Limited, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, Mankind Pharma Limited, Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited, Haldia Energy Limited, Essel Mining and Industry Limited, Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited, Keventer Food Parks Limited, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, BG Shirke Construction Technology Pvt Ltd, Rungta Sons Pvt Ltd and Torrent Power Limited are also among donors, according to the data.
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Electoral Bonds Data Live Updates: List of fundings to political parties
- PM Modi-led BJP: over ₹6,000 crore
- Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC)- ₹1,610 crore
- Sonia Gandhi-led Congress- ₹1,422 crore
- K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS): ₹1,215 crore
- Naveen Patnaik-led BJP: ₹776 crore
