New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress emerged as a surprise second after the Bharatiya Janata Party, in the list of political parties benefitting from the electoral bonds bonanza. It has received a total of Rs 1609.53 crore for the period in question, since April 12, 2019.Overall annual drawIn 2019, it got Rs 70.08 crore. 2020 was a poor year, with Rs 29.77 crore, 2021 with Rs 330.94 crore, this is the year there was covid and the assembly elections in the state which the party won handsomely. In its third term now, the bonds picked up. In 2022, Rs 468.8 crore followed and in 2023, Rs 562 crore, its best ever so far. Even the current year, 2024, has ushered in Rs 130.4 crore. Big fishFuture Gaming and Hotel Services, gave a whopping one-third to the TMC. The Lottery King’s company has emerged as the top donor to political parties and he is responsible for more than one-third of their total donations, Rs 542 crore. The maximum chunk of that came last year in 2023, Rs 158 crore. Future Gaming bought bonds of up to Rs 1,368 crore in all.Over 99% of Future’s contributions to the party occurred post their significant victory in the 2021 assembly election. Between July 2021 and January 2023, Future allocated Rs 541 crore out of its total contribution of Rs 543 crore to the TMC.In April 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had provisionally attached all movable assets, valued at Rs. 409.92 crore, belonging to Future Gaming and Hotel Services on the basis of an FIR filed by the Kolkata Police. Investigating agencies revealed that proceeds from lottery ticket sales were unlawfully diverted towards gifts and incentives through the unauthorised modification of lottery scheme prize structures, lacking approval from the respective state governments. Interestingly, around the same time, multiple TMC leaders or their family members reportedly claimed to have won jackpots. In 2021, TMC strongman Anubrata Mondal and members of his family were reported to have won the top prize in the company’s weekly Dear Lottery draws. In August 2022, Ruchika Gupta, wife of Jorasanko MLA Vivek Gupta, claimed a jackpot prize of Rs 1 crore. A month earlier, Neru Singh, sister-in-law of TMC’s Nalhati MLA Rajendra Prasad Singh, also secured a Rs 1 crore prize. Haldia Energy Private Limited, a part of Kolkata billionaire, Sanjeev Goenka’s RPSG group, gave TMC Rs 281 crore, around 75% of its total purchase of Rs 377 crore. The largest amount is donated was last year, Rs 95 crore. It donated regularly to the Bengal party – from 2020. In 2021, 2022 and 2023. This year too, it paid Rs 35 crore. RPSG’s other group companies, Dhariwal Infrastructure also contributed Rs 90 crore to TMC’s coffers. Philips Carbon, another group company paid the ruling party in West Bengal Rs 53 crore, Crescent Power Rs 33 crore and RPSG Ventures Rs 3 crore. Overall, RPSG Group contributed 28.7% of the total electoral bond donations received by the TMC. Keventer Foodpark Infra Limited paid TMC Rs 144.5 crore in 2019 and Madanlal Limited Rs 175.5 crore in the same year. This group is the third-highest political funder nationally. MKJ Enterprises paid TMC Rs 45.9 crore in 2021, 2022 and 2023. As reported earlier, these are firms linked to Kolkata industrialist Mahendra Jalan, which have spent a total of Rs 617 crore on electoral bonds. Jalan’s firms paid Rs 365.9 crore to TMC.A shadowy aspect of the now “unconstitutional” bonds came to light via Avees Trading and Finance Private Limited. This is a company which The Wire noted, was donating amounts entirely unconnected to its performance, paid the TMC a total of Rs 45.5 crore. Despite continued losses, the Kolkata-based Avees Trading bought Rs 113 Crore of Electoral Bonds. In FY20, its parent company, Technical Associates Infrapower Ltd, incurred a loss of Rs 75.80 crore, which included Avees Trading’s financial loss of Rs 52 crore. During this period, Avees Trading purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 24 crore. All of that went to the TMC. In 2021, it paid TMC Rs 15 crore and in 2023, Rs 6.5 crore.Construction firm Chennai Green Woods Private Limited donated TMC Rs 40 crore out of Rs 105 crore through electoral bonds. The company, operating out of Ramky Towers in Hyderabad, the official address of the Hyderabad based Ramky group, has made a one time donation to the party on January 5, 2022. On the same day, another company located in the same address, Madhya Pradesh Waste Management Pvt Ltd donated Rs 6 crore to TMC. Ramky Towers is the official address of the Ramky group, which has been under ED and IT scanner for a long time. Four days later, the ECI announced assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Goa.Prarambh Securities, a little known stock brokering firm also paid TMC Rs 38.75 crore in January 2022. The Mumbai based firm also paid Rs 33 crore to BJP, Rs 5 crore to Congress and Rs 2 crore to Shivsena. At least Rs 135.crore of TMC’s electoral bonds came from Indian-made-foreign-liquor, country liquor and bottling companies. IFB Agro, which faced hooliganism at its bottling plant in TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s constituency donated Rs 42 crore while its sister company Bengal Vipanan contributed another Rs 2 crore. Note: An earlier version of the piece had erroneously counted Megha Engineering among top donors to TMC.
