Among the list of donors who bought electoral bonds are 374 individuals. They have cumulatively paid ₹384.35 crore to buy electoral bonds.

However, this amounts to just 1.57 per cent of the total amount of money spent between April 2019 and January 2024 to buy electoral bonds.

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Executive Chairman of ArcelorMittal, is the individual who spent the most on purchasing electoral bonds. In 2019, he bought ₹35 crore worth of bonds. With a net worth of $15.9 billion, according to the Forbes list, he is the 13th richest Indian. Mittal is also the only individual among the top 50 donors.

Other buyers

He is closely followed by two people, KR Raja Jt and Laxmidas Vallabhdas Asmita Mercha, who have bought bonds worth ₹25 crore each. While there is no public information on KR Raja, he bought bonds worth ₹25 crore in 2023. Public record shows the existence of a certain Laxmidas Vallabhdas Merchant, a name that is similar to that of the latter. Merchant is a group controller at Reliance Industries Limited, according to his LinkedIn profile.

An individual named Rahul Bhatia has purchased bonds worth ₹20 crore. There are speculations that this points to the CEO of InterGlobe Enterprises, who is also named Rahul Bhatia. However, businessline hasn’t been able to independently verify this claim. On the other hand, InterGlobe, which owns IndiGo has bought bonds worth ₹36 crore.

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Many defunct companies belonging to a larger group, which have almost no operations, seem to have been used to purchase electoral bonds

Donations through electoral bonds not always in line with company performance

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The largest donors of electoral bonds have also donated to Prudent Electoral Trust 

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Kolkata, city of bonds. A third of biggest electoral bond donors based in the city 

Inder Jaisinghani, the 32nd richest Indian is the next person on the list, having bought bonds worth ₹14 crore. He runs Polycab India and has a net worth of $6.4 billion, according to Forbes. Rajesh Mannalal Agrawal, Joint Managing Director of Ajanta Pharma Ltd, has spent ₹13 crore on bonds. Bonds worth ₹4 crore were bought in the name of Ajanta Pharma Ltd.

The other names on the list include Harmesh Rahul Joshi, Rahul Jagannath Joshi, Raju Kumar Sharma, Saurabh Gupta and Anita Hemant Shah. Biocon’s founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw also features on the list, having spent ₹6 crore on bonds.

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