Trinamool Congress Emerges as Top Beneficiary of Electoral Bonds from ‘Lottery King’ Donor

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 22nd March. According to data released by the State Bank of India and the Election Commission on Thursday, Trinamool Congress received electoral bonds worth at least 540 crore rupees from Future Gaming, making it the biggest beneficiary of donations from lottery king Santiago Martin. Martin also donated to other parties like DMK, YSR Congress, BJP, and Congress.

Other parties like Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and Sikkim Democratic Front also received funds from Future Gaming, the largest purchaser of electoral bonds. The scheme was initiated by the BJP government in March 2018 but was recently discontinued.

While many well-known corporates participated in the scheme, Future Gaming emerged as the top donor, purchasing bonds worth 1,368 crore rupees. Apart from Trinamool Congress, Future Gaming also donated 509 crore rupees to DMK, 160 crore rupees to YSR Congress, 100 crore rupees to BJP, and 50 crore rupees to Congress.

Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering was the second-largest donor, contributing 966 crore rupees to various parties including BJP, Bharat Rashtra Samiti, and DMK. Qwik Supply was the third-largest donor, buying 410 crore rupees in bonds and donating 395 crore rupees to BJP and 25 crore rupees to Shiv Sena.

BJP was a major recipient of funds from corporate groups like Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, Muthoot, Bajaj Auto, Jindal Group, and TVS Motor. The Election Commission also released a new dataset of electoral bonds, including alpha-numeric numbers to track purchasers and recipients.

Various companies like Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, Muthoot, Bajaj, Apollo Tyres, and Keventers made donations to different political parties like BJP, Congress, TMC, AAP, and others. Industrialists like Lakshmi Niwas Mittal and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw also contributed to political parties like BJP, TMC, and Congress.

Pharmaceutical companies like Piramal Capital, Sun Pharma, Torrent Pharmaceutical Limited, and Natco Pharma also made donations to parties like BJP, Congress, TDP, and others.