New Delhi: Bajaj Finserv was the top donor of electoral bonds to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) between January 2019 and May 2019, according to the party’s submission to the Election Commission of India (ECI), which subsequently went to the Supreme Court and was published by the poll body on its website on Sunday (March 17).

According to the list of donors made available by the party, it has received a total of Rs 37.75 crore between January 2019 and May 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

The party’s highest donor, Bajaj Finserv, has donated Rs 7.5 crore during this period. The Bajaj group has donated a total of Rs 48 crore as electoral bonds to all political parties.

The other major donors include Bangalore-based Infina Infrastructure and Pune-based Atul Chordia of Panchshil Group. They donated Rs 5 crore each.

Avinash Bhosle of ABIL purchased electoral bonds of Rs 4.5 crore but the document shows that the encashed amount by the party is Rs 9 crore.

Bhosale was arrested in 2022 for his alleged involvement in the Yes Bank-Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) loan fraud case.

The other top donor to the party, according to the list is Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the Poonawalla group that privately owns Serum Institute of India. Poonawalla has donated a total Rs 3.75 crore to the party.

Last month, NCP chief Sharad Pawar demanded Bharat Ratna for Poonawalla and pointed out how the Serum Institute's vaccine has proved effective for many diseases, including COVID-19.

The party has also received electoral bonds of Rs 2.5 crore from Modern Road Makers Pvt and Rs 2 crore each from United Shippers Ltd and Bharti Airtel.

It has also received Rs 1 crore each from Oberoi Realty, Abhay Firodia and Bhansali Emam. In addition, it has received Rs 50 lakh each from Vivek Jadhav and United Phosphorus India.

The party’s submission stated that it is unable to provide detailed particulars of each donor as it had not maintained such records as they “were not expected” to do so.

“We are unable to furnish detailed particulars of donors against each bond as we neither maintained complete details of the same nor issued any receipts against the Bonds received as initially we were not expected to maintain any details of electoral bearer bonds As well as during the election period there is movement of office bearers for campaign. Wherever possible we have indicated the name of the person through whom bonds were received by the Party,” it said.

According to the Supreme Court mandated data published by the EC last week, the Nationalist Congress Party Parliament received a total of Rs 50 crores and the Nationalist Congress Party Maharashtra Pradesh received a total of Rs 50 lakh between April 12, 2019 and February 15, 2024.

The NCP is among the ten political parties that have disclosed their donors on Sunday. The top three recipients of electoral bonds – the BJP, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress – have not yet disclosed the names of their donors.

Three Left parties in India – the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation – told the Election Commission of India in their submissions in 2023 that they have not received any money through electoral bonds.

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