New Delhi:
While several political parties received donations worth millions of rupees through electoral bonds, there is a large majority that did not receive any money through the now abolished political financing system.
More than 500 recognized and unrecognized political parties had shared details of electoral bonds in sealed covers with the Supreme Court.
The data was submitted through the Election Commission and made public by the poll panel on Sunday.
Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, a recognized national party, has told the Election Commission that it has not received any funding through electoral bonds since the scheme's inception.
The National People's Party, which rules Meghalaya, is another national party that has not received donations through electoral bonds.
The National Conference, a recognized state party in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, has announced that it has received Rs 50 lakh from the Bharti group through electoral bonds.
The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) announced that it received Rs 50 lakh through electoral bonds from Alambic Pharma.
Left parties, including CPI, CPI-M, All-India Forward Bloc and CPI-ML, did not receive any funding from electoral bonds. They said they were refusing donations through this route on principle.
Some of the registered unrecognized parties submitted their comments in handwritten notes on plain paper, stating that they did not receive any funding through polls.
Several parties active in states such as Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, AIMIM, IAUDF, Zoram People's Movement, Asom Gana Parishad, Bodoland People's Front, Kerala Congress (Mani), late Vijayakanth's DMDK, INLD and the Tamil Maanila Congress did that also does not receive donations through polls.
On the other hand, some other smaller regional players such as the Goa Forward Party and MGP received electoral bonds worth Rs 36 lakh and Rs 55 lakh respectively.
According to an earlier report by the NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore were sold between March 2018 and January 2024.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)