While parties across the political spectrum were shying away from disclosing details of the donors of electoral bonds, a few, including two major parties from Tamil Nadu, have opened up.
The state’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and opposition party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have shared the details of the donors with the poll body, which has made them public.
Since 2019, the DMK got Rs 656.5 crore, while the AIADMK got Rs 6.05 crore. It is also important to note that while DMK has been getting funding through these bonds throughout, the donation to AIADMK stopped in 2019.
The data issued by ECI and analysed by News18 shows that the Future Gaming group, which came into the limelight last week after the electoral bond details were issued, has been a constant donor to DMK since 2021.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd has donated Rs 509 crore to the DMK between 2020-21 and 2022-23 (up to November). In total, the firm has donated Rs 1,368 crore to political parties, emerging as the single-largest donor under electoral bonds. Matching the numbers with DMK’s list shows that the party got over 35 per cent of the firm’s total donation.
Also, the firm’s donation to the DMK in the last few years accounts for the party’s 77 per cent funding from electoral bonds.
When seen year-wise, the Future group donated Rs 249 crore alone in 2021-22, followed by Rs 160 crore in 2022-23. It is worth mentioning that the state went for assembly polls in April 2021. The results were declared in May 2021 and, the same month, the DMK came to power with MK Stalin taking the charge as chief minister.
In 2020-21, the firm made its first donation to the party through electoral bonds — Rs 60 crore. The DMK’s documents also reveal that the party got Rs 40 crore from the firm between April 1, 2023, and November 2023.
Mega Infrastructure has contributed Rs 105 crore to the DMK since 2019. In 2019-20 and 2020-21 each, the firm gave Rs 20 crore to DMK. The next year, in 2021-22, the donations reached Rs 40 crore and came down to Rs 25 crore in 2022-23.
Future Group and Mega Infrastructure were accountable for DMK’s nearly 95 per cent funding from bonds and were the only companies that donated through electoral bonds to the party in 2020-21 and 2022-23.
Among the other biggest contributors of DMK were India Cements, once a direct owner of the Indian Premier League franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The firm donated Rs 10 crore to DMK in 2019-20 and Rs 4 crore in 2021-22. Sun TV Network Ltd donated Rs 10 crore in 2021-22.
Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd was AIADMK’s biggest donor
It was for a very brief period that the AIADMK got funding through electoral bonds — just before the 2019 Lok Sabha started.
In a three-day period between April 2 and 4, 2019, the party got Rs 6.05 crore through electoral bonds. Of this, Rs five crore was from the CSK alone in one day – on April 3, 2019.
Coimbatore-based Lakshmi Machine Works Limited was the first donor to the party — Rs 1 crore on April 2, 2019. One Gopal Srinivasan from Chennai donated Rs 5 lakh to the party through electoral bonds on April 4, 2019.
The Supreme Court in February banned electoral bonds, saying the anonymous scheme violated citizens’ right to information.
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