New Delhi: Electoral bonds worth more than Rs 1,577 crore were sold after the Supreme Court had already reserved its verdict on the constitutionality of the electoral bonds scheme in November 2023, data collated by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra has revealed.The Supreme Court struck down the scheme as unconstitutional on February 15, 2024 after reserving its verdict on November 2, 2023. The Narendra Modi government announced the 29th phase of electoral bond sale two days after the judgement was reserved. In the 29th sale cycle, that lasted from November 6-20, 2023, electoral bonds worth more than Rs 1,000 crores were sold. In the next phase, from January 2-11, 2024, bonds worth Rs 570 crores were sold.Nearly 99% of the bonds sold in the 29th phase and 94% sold in the 30th phase were in the denomination of Rs 1 crore.The Narendra Modi government had also printed 8,350 electoral bonds, of Rs 1 crore each, in 2024 alone. An earlier RTI filed by Batra had established that the taxpayer, not the donors or political parties, is footing the bill of printing and managing electoral bonds.According to the data released by the Election Commission of India, BJP has received Rs 8,251 crores via electoral bonds which amounts to nearly 50% of all money donated through this means since 2018.
