Future Gaming, Megha Engineering, Qwik Supply & More: List of Top 20 Electoral Bond Purchasers

New Delhi: As per the data disclosed by the State Bank of India (SBI) and published on the official website of the Election Commission of India (ECI), it has been revealed that the combined purchases of electoral bonds by the top 20 donors, such as Future Gaming, Megha Engineering, and Qwiksupplychain Pvt Ltd, have amounted to Rs 5,830 crore. This total represents roughly 48% of the entire value of electoral bonds bought between April 2019 and January 2024. 

For the unversed, Santiago Martin, a prominent figure in South India's lottery industry, is the owner of Future Gaming, while Megha Engineering, renowned for its construction of dams and power projects, is under the ownership of PV Krishna Reddy and PP Reddy. Besides, Vedanta Limited, a major player in global mining, is led by Anil Agarwal and is among the top 20 donors in electoral bond purchases.

List of Top 20 Electoral Bond Purchasers   

Last night, the Election Commission disclosed the details on 'Disclosure of Electoral Bonds submitted by SBI' in two parts. Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India shared the data with the Election Commission on March 12. On February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the Election Commission of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients. 

Disclose Unique Alpha-Numeric Numbers of Electoral Bonds: SC Directs SBI  

The Supreme Court today directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose the unique alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds received by political parties and sought the bank’s response. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, which was hearing an application filed by the Election Commission (EC) seeking a modification of the operative portion of its March 11 order in the electoral bonds case, directed its registrar (judicial) to ensure that the data filed earlier by the poll panel before it in a sealed cover be scanned and digitised. It said this be preferably carried out by 5 pm on Saturday and once the exercise is completed, the original documents be returned to the EC.

During the hearing, the bench, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, took note of the submissions made by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who appeared in the matter on behalf of the petitioner, that the alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds have not been disclosed by the SBI.

It issued a notice to the bank and posted the matter for hearing on March 18.

In its application filed in the apex court, the poll panel said the March 11 order had noted that the copies of the documents submitted by it to the court in a sealed cover during the course of the hearing be maintained at the office of the EC. The EC said it did not keep any copy of the documents and added that those may be returned so that it can comply with the court’s directions.