The DMK is among the few political parties that voluntarily provided names of individuals and entities that donated through electoral bonds.
A new set of data on electoral bonds published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) revealing submissions by political parties in a sealed cover, has led to fresh revelations.
While several political parties — including the BJP, which is the biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds — have withheld the names of the donors in “sealed cover” submissions made to the ECI, parties like the DMK and the JD(S) have listed names of donors.
With the limited information on donors that has been made available, Tamil Nadu’s ruling party, the DMK, seems to have received the highest contributions from “lottery king” Santiago Martin’s firm Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited.
While the first set of data uploaded by the ECI does not provide information on who donated to which party, the latest data set, published on Sunday afternoon, discloses the information provided by political parties following ECI’s letter in November 2023.
As per the Supreme Court’s orders, parties were instructed to submit details of donors and specifics of electoral bonds received and encashed by them.
The DMK is among the very few parties that have voluntarily provided names of donors.
As per the party’s submission in the sealed cover document, the DMK received a total of ₹656,50,00,000 (₹656.50 crore) between 14 April, 2019, and 10 April, 2023.
Of this, ₹509,00,00,000 (₹509 crore) via electoral bonds came from Santiago Martin’s firm Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited. This makes the lottery king the DMK’s biggest beneficiary.
Right at the second spot is what the DMK refers to in the document as “Mega Infrastructure”, which contributed ₹105,00,00,000 crore (₹105 crore).
As per data released by ECI earlier on electoral bond donors, Future Gaming purchased electoral bonds worth ₹1,368 crore in total and was the largest buyer of the bonds.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited and its subsidiaries bought electoral bonds worth ₹1,200 crore.
With several other parties withholding information on donor names, which party received the rest of the funds remains untraceable until the SBI reveals more information.
According to the DMK’s submission, the party received ₹45.50 crore through the purchase of electoral bonds between 15 April, 2019, and 31 March, 2020.
The funds came from India Cements (₹10 crore), LMW (₹1.5 crore), Ramco Cements (₹5 crore), Mega Infrastructure (₹20 crore), Apollo (₹1 crore), Triveni (₹5 crore), Birla (₹1 crore), and IRB (₹2 crore).
The DMK also said in its submission that from 23 October to 29 October in 2020, it got ₹80 crore through electoral bonds, of which Future Gaming accounted for ₹60 crore and Mega Infrastructure ₹20 crore.
The party added that between 5 April, 2021, and 1 November, 2022, the DMK received ₹306 crore, of which ₹249 crore came from Future Gaming and Hotel Services and ₹40 crore came from Mega Infrastructure.
Within the same period, ₹10 crore came from Sun Network, ₹4 crore from India Cements, and ₹3 crore from Triveni. It may be noted that the Sun Network is a business run by DMK leaders and their kin.
The DMK also said that between 11 April, 2022, to 10 October, 2022, it got ₹185 crore, of which ₹160 crore came from Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd and ₹25 crore from Mega Infra.
It added that on 10 April, 2023, it received ₹40 crore entirely from Future Gaming and Hotel Services.
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