Kolkata: In electoral democracy, elections win fortunes. Winning the 2021 assembly election earned West Bengal’s ruling party, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), a great fortune in monetary terms.
In the 35 months between their first receipt of funding through electoral bonds in July 2018 and the Bengal assembly election in April-May 2021, the party earned Rs 285.14 crore through electoral bonds. The funding pattern saw a massive change after her return to power for a third straight term in May 2021. The party earned Rs 1,420.05 crore in the 31 months between July 2021 and January 2024 – a five-fold increase in monthly average.
Even during the pre-2021 assembly election period, the fluctuation in getting funding is discernable. As per electoral bond encashment data and the party’s submissions before the Supreme Court that have been published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) under the apex court’s instructions, the party ruling Bengal since 2011 earned Rs 150.5 crore through electoral bonds in 11 months from July 2018 to May 2019.
By the time of Lok Sabha election 2019, the BJP was far ahead of everyone else – earning Rs. 3964.89 crore through electoral bonds by May 2019. It got Rs 210 crore in January-February-March 2018 when no other party had anything in their account. By March 2019, it had earned another Rs 1,450.89 crore and another whopping Rs 2,304 crore came in April-May 2019.
Also read: Top Five Political Parties Saw Electoral Bonds Fortunes Turning With Election Wins and Losses
The Congress’ earnings till the Lok Sabha elections (May 2019) – when they had governments in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh – was Rs 698.16 crore.
The TMC’s earnings of Rs 150.5 crore through electoral bonds till May 2019 ranked sixth among parties – after the BJP, Congress, and regional parties – Odisha’s ruling party Biju Janata Dal (Rs. 254 crore), Telangana’s ruling party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (Rs 230.65 crore) and Andhra Pradesh’s rising force, the YSR Congress (Rs. 152.9 crore), though it was ahead of Andhra’s ruling party, Telugu Desam (Rs. 108.23 crore).
Representative image. Photo: Unsplash
Funding pattern during the 2019 Lok Sabha election in West Bengal reveals that over Rs 500 crore was pumped into the political funding from West Bengal-based business groups like Mahendra Jalan’s MKJ group and Sanjiv Goenka’s RP Sanjiv Goenka group, among others. It maybe noted that in September 2022, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started an investigation against the RP Sanjiv Goenka group of companies on thce harge of involvement in the allocations of coal blocks in the past. October 2022 saw spending of Rs 40 crore – Rs 15 crore from Crescent Power, and Rs 25 crore from Dhariwal Infrastructure. Two Sanjiv Goenka-led firms were flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the country’s top auditor, for rigging coal auctions.
The TMC did not have much fortune in tapping those fundings, as their earning through electoral bonds during the Lok Sabha election months of April-May stood at Rs 53.22 crore.
After the Lok Sabha election setback, in which the TMC’s Lok Sabha tally came down from 34 in 2014 to 22 in 2019 – funding shrunk. They got another Rs 134.64 crore in two years till May 2021, the end of the Bengal assembly election. During the assembly election months of April-May 2021, their earning from electoral bonds stood at Rs 45.4 crore.
But everything changed after Banerjee’s TMC defeated the BJP’s high-voltage campaign and returned to power with a massive mandate, indicating a stable government for the next five years. They got ‘rewarded’ in the very first trance of electoral bond sales in July 2021. It became a 100-crore-month for the party – earning Rs 107.4 crore. Of this, Rs 61 crore came on a single day on July 12.
Here’s the party’s rather startling earnings on some days in January 2022 – Rs 69 crore on January 10, Rs 29 crore on January 11, Rs 60 crore on January 13, and Rs 51 crore on January 14.
Overall, they earned Rs 482.6 crore in 10 months between July 2021 and March 2022, and Rs. 325 crore between April 2022 and March 2023.
These big fundings came at a time when the TMC was aiming big to expand beyond Bengal and carried out high-voltage campaigns in Goa, Tripura and Meghalaya. Their expansion bids, though, failed rather miserably, except for Meghalaya to some extent.
Despite these failures outside West Bengal, funding flow increased as the Lok Sabha election inched closer. They got Rs 171.27 crore through electoral bonds in October 2023 and Rs 130 crore in January 2024. Of them, Rs 98 crore came on a single day – January 10. Overall, the party got Rs 612 crore between April 2023 and January 2024.
This massive funds inflow has taken the party way ahead of other regional parties, ranking third among the beneficiaries of the electoral bonds scheme, with a cumulative income of Rs 1,705 crore, which is roughly 10% of total electoral bond encashments of Rs 16,518 crore by all parties.
They stood only behind the BJP (8,251.8 crore OR 50%) and the Congress (Rs. 1,952 crore or 11.82%). However, their income since their return to power in May 2021 is higher than the Congress during the same period, despite the latter’s nationwide presence.
As a result of such fund inflow, the TMC’s assets rose quicker than others. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) pointed out in 2023 that the TMC’s total assets increased from Rs. 182 crore in 2020-21 to Rs. 458 crore in 2021-22.
This huge earning by Mamata Banerjee’s party has raised many eyebrows, considering that West Bengal is not among India’s top economies and that the state has not seen any big-ticket industrial projects during Banerjee’s 12-year rule. The government, however, has been looking for potential bidders for two deep-sea port projects in East Midnapore district’s Tajpur and South 24-Parganas district’s Kulpi and a major coal mining project in Birbhum district and is spending a lot on roadways infrastructure.
West Bengal is India’s fourth-most populous state, after Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, and has the third highest number of Lok Sabha seats – 42, after Uttar Pradesh (80) and Maharashtra (44). It is India’s sixth-largest economy.
The publication of the electoral bond details has so far caused the BJP a great deal of embarrassment, as it is being pointed out how companies that faced probes by central investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) gave generously founded political parties soon after raid by such agencies, prompting many to suspect institutional extortion. The TMC has maintained a complete silence during this entire episode.
The only comment has come from the party’s Delhi-based Rajya Sabha MP, Saket Gokhale, who described the apex court verdict calling the scheme unconstitutional as “a historic one.” But over the next four weeks, no word came from the party’s top leaders — chairperson Mamata Banerjee, or the all-India general secretary, her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
Even as the central government institution, the State Bank of India (SBI), has appeared to try its best to convince the court not to make public the secret serial numbers that can connect donors with recipients, and has so far failed, the TMC shows no sign of celebration. It is not often that they miss an opportunity to target the BJP.
“The party’s comments, if any, will come only after seeing what transpires in the Supreme Court finally. Let us first see if all serial numbers are made public and what the people can make out of them,” said a state minister, who did not want to be identified.
The minister argued that it was not necessary that there must be a “quid pro quo” behind the TMC’s inflow of funds. “Many industrialists are fed up with the BJP’s rule and want to end it. Mamata Banerjee being one of the leading opposition faces, it is highly possible that some of these people would like to back her to end the BJP’s tyranny. People who want us to fight for an inclusive India may also have supported us with funding.”
In any case, even if the serial numbers are released and people get to know who funded the TMC, the party is ready with its line of defence. They would repeat what they wrote in the affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court in the electoral bond case.
The party wrote, “The Bonds are bearer bonds and no details of the purchasers are printed on the bond. Further, most of the bonds were sent to our office and dropped in the drop box or sent through messengers from various persons who wished to support our party. Thus, we do not have names and other details of the buyers of the Bonds.”
In short, even as parties like Tamil Nadu’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Karnataka’s Janata Dal (Secular) had voluntarily disclosed donor details at the supreme court’s call for transparency, the TMC’s answer is short and simple: “We do not know who funded us.”
