As soon as the information about electoral bonds became public, parties are now seen shying away from the issue of donations.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United even said that someone had left this bond in their office.
TMC says that they do not have information about those who bought the bonds.
TMC and JDU have denied the information about the bonds of the year 2018-19. According to a report by Times of India, on May 27, 2019, TMC had also talked about the bond in the information given to the Election Commission of India.
The party said, ‘Most of these bonds were sent to our office and kept in drop boxes or sent through messengers to those who want to support our party.’
It was further told, ‘Most of them chose to remain anonymous, so we do not have the names and other information of the buyers.’
According to the report, JDU had told the Election Commission on May 30, 2019, ‘On April 13, 2019, someone came to our office in Patna and gave a sealed envelope, when it was opened, we found 10 electoral bonds worth Rs. 1 crore each. In such circumstances, we are unable to provide further information about the donors.
JDU also says, ‘We do not know and we did not even try to find out, because at that time there was no order of the Supreme Court and there was only a notification from the Government of India.’
How much donations did JDU and TMC receive?
However, JDU has given information about donors of Rs 3 crore out of Rs 13 crore in April 2019.
At the same time, information about donors who gave about Rs 75 crore through electoral bonds between July 16, 2018 and May 22, 2019 has not been disclosed by TMC.
TMC, which has not given any donor information, says that its information can be found from the unique numbers of the bonds issued by SBI.
According to the report, the party said, ‘We also understand that SBI is the only one to issue these bonds under the Electoral Bond Scheme.
Those who were issued bonds must have provided PAN card, ID proof, address information and other documents. Therefore the bank has information about all the bond holders who have donated to us.