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regular-article-logo Monday, 29 April 2024

Mackenna’s... Errr, Martin’s Poll Gold: SBI reveals electoral bond data with ‘unique numbers’

Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd — owned by the so-called “Lottery King”, Santiago Martin — paid out Rs 100 crore to the BJP. Sanjiv Goenka’s Haldia Energy funnelled Rs 81 crore to the party while group company Dhariwal Infrastructure chipped in with Rs 25 crore

Sambit Saha, Pinak Ghosh, Vivek Nair Calcutta/Mumbai Published 22.03.24, 05:27 AM
Representational image.

Representational image. File Photo.

The game of intrigue over the funding of political parties through the controversial electoral bonds continued on Thursday after the State Bank of India finally put out two separate data sets with the unique identification numbers of the bonds that weren’t disclosed when the data trove was first put out a week ago.

The data showed that Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, Reliance group affiliate Qwik Supply Chain, and mining magnate Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta ranked among the top donors to the BJP, which received donations worth Rs 5,592.20 crore through the electoral bonds — over 3.5 times second-placed TMC’s cash chest of Rs 1,592.52 crore — and about 39 per cent of the overall cash pool.

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Qwik Supply Chain — a fairly unknown company with its registered office in Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in Navi Mumbai —forked out Rs 375 crore to the BJP. The Ambani group entity also paid out Rs 25 crore to the Shiv Sena, and a sum of Rs 10 crore to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Megha Engineering was the biggest donor to the BJP with a payment of Rs 519 crore followed by Qwik Supply Chain.

The other major donors to the Narendra Modi-led party — which hopes to storm back to power after the upcoming general election — include Vedanta (Rs 226.65 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 183 crore), and the two MK Jalan group entities Madanlal Ltd (Rs 175.50 crore) and Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd (Rs 144.50 crore).

Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd — owned by the so-called “Lottery King”, Santiago Martin — paid out Rs 100 crore to the BJP. Sanjiv Goenka’s Haldia Energy funnelled Rs 81 crore to the party while group company Dhariwal Infrastructure chipped in with Rs 25 crore.

London-based tycoon Lakshmi Mittal gave Rs 35 crore to the BJP — the only political party that he funded in April 2019.

Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming & Hotel Services emerged as the largest donor to the Trinamul Congress, stumping up a whopping Rs 542 crore.

Curiously, Future Gaming’s largesse to Trinamul was more than the Rs 503 crore it gave the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Martin is a businessman who runs his lottery empire out of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.

Calcutta-based RPSG Group, led by the Sanjiv Goenka family, which supplies electricity to Calcutta and adjoining areas, was the second-largest donor to the party in power in Bengal. The group shovelled Rs 459 crore to Trinamul’s coffers, mostly through two subsidiaries of CESC Ltd — Haldia Energy and Dhariwal Infrastructure.

The third in Trinamul’s pecking order appeared to be the Mahendra Jalan group entities, which have contributed close to Rs 66 crore to the party. These entities, however, have made much bigger contributions to the BJP.

A little-known company called Avees Trading & Finance is the fourth largest on the list, having donated bonds worth Rs 45.50 crore.

IFB Agro Ltd, the market leader in India-made liquor in Bengal and a well-known name in food processing, came in fifth and coughed up Rs 42 crore.

The Congress trailed in third with a war chest of Rs 1,343.24 crore. The party’s biggest donor was Western UP Power Transmission Company Ltd, a company set up in September 2009 and involved in production and distribution of electricity. The company, registered in Kanpur but owned by an Andhra-based businessman, paid Rs 110 crore to the Grand Old Party. The other big donors included Vedanta (Rs 104 crore), and MKJ Enterprises (Rs 69.35 crore).

The Congress also received Rs 50 crore from Future Gaming and another Rs 53 crore from Avees Trading Finance Pvt Ltd, which operates out of Waterloo Street.

Spicejet and Tech Mahindra were among those who donated funds to the Aam Aadmi Party through the electoral bonds. The party received just over Rs 65 crore.

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