EC releases 3rd list of Electoral bonds data with ‘unique numbers’

THE Election Commission of India on Thursday released the Electoral Bonds data including purchase and redemption details and bond numbers to match donors with parties.

Two separate lists of the donors and the recipients were published by the poll panel on its website after the details were submitted to it by the State Bank of India earlier in the day as per a Supreme Court order.

The State Bank of India was the only bank authorized to sell and redeem the bonds, which were first issued in March 2018 and were being sold until the scheme was declared null and void by the top court last month. The Election Commission said it has uploaded the data on electoral bonds on its website as received from SBI on an “as is where is basis”.

Earlier in the day, the State Bank of India (SBI) filed a compliance affidavit in the Supreme Court saying all details on the electoral bonds have been given to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and “nothing is withheld”.

“The State Bank of India has provided/disclosed all details of the electoral bonds which are in its possession and custody to the Election Commission of India,” the affidavit read.

On Monday, the apex court directed the SBI to provide comprehensive details of all electoral bonds, including the unique bond numbers revealing connections between buyers and recipients by Thursday, March 21, at 5 pm. The poll panel was also instructed to upload the data received from SBI.

In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15 this year, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.

The State Bank of India (SBI) told the Supreme Court that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased by political parties between April 1, 2019, and February 15 this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed.