look news india
Future Gaming and Hotel Services, now involved in illegal electoral bond scheme with Rs 1,368 crore , has donated over Rs 500 crore each to Trinamool Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. While West Bengal's ruling TMC got Rs 542 crore from the firm, the DMK in power in Tamil Nadu got Rs 509 crore.
Election Commission of India data analyzed by News18 shows that the company also donated Rs 160 crore to Andhra Pradesh's ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP). The three parties received approximately 90% of the firm's total donations.
The company donated Rs 100 crore to the Centre's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Rs 50 crore to the Congress.
In January 2024, just before the ban on the electoral bond scheme, Future Gaming & Hotel Services PR bought 63 bonds worth Rs 63 crore. All but three bonds were encashed by TMC for Rs 60 crore. Sikkim Democratic Front received the remaining bonds worth Rs 3 crore.
Overall, between January 3 and January 11, the last window for the sale of electoral bonds before the ban was imposed by the Supreme Court, bonds worth Rs 571 crore were purchased. According to data made public by the Election Commission of India, Future Group was the biggest buyer after Bharti Airtel with 50 bonds worth Rs 50 crore.
News18 had earlier this week sought details of donations made to DMK and AIADMK. had reported , Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd has donated Rs 509 crore to DMK between 2020-21 and 2022-23 (till November). The company donated Rs 249 crore in 2021-22 alone, followed by Rs 160 crore in 2022-23. It is noteworthy that assembly elections were held in Tamil Nadu in April 2021. The results were declared in May 2021 and in the same month, the DMK came to power with MK Stalin taking charge as the Chief Minister.
In 2020-21, the firm made its first donation to the party through electoral bonds – Rs 60 crore. DMK documents also reveal that the party received Rs 40 crore from the firm between April 1, 2023, and November 2023.
The donations made by Future Gaming, whose owner, “Lottery King” Santiago Martin, is under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), constitute about 35% of TMC’s total donations through electoral bonds in the last few years. For DMK, the share is around 77%.
On Thursday, the Election Commission of India released a new set of data related to the now-banned scheme along with the corresponding bond numbers, revealing details of who donated how much to which party.
Megha Engineering is the biggest donor of BJP
The second-largest donor in the list of firms – Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd, with Rs 966 crore, has donated Rs 519 crore to the BJP, which is about 55% of its total donations.
The company's contribution was only about nine percent of BJP's total income from bonds. In the last few years, the party received Rs 6,060 crore from electoral bonds.
Supreme Court's instructions
Last month, the Supreme Court struck down the scheme saying anonymous electoral bonds violate citizens' right to information.
The court had asked State Bank of India to share the data with the ECI and directed the Election Commission to publish these details on its website by March 15. On March 14, the Election Commission shared two sets of data – bonds purchased by individuals and the list of political parties who encashed these bonds in their accounts.