Electoral Bonds: Trinamool Congress Biggest Beneficiary of Lottery King's Future Gaming

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress got at least Rs 540 crore worth electoral bonds from Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd, making it the biggest beneficiary of donations made by 'lottery king' Santiago Martin through Electoral Bonds. 

While a plethora of well-known corporates bought the bonds when the scheme was alive, the biggest donor to political parties was Future Gaming, which purchased bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore.

While Lottery King also donated to parties like DMK, YSR Congress, BJP and Congress; TMC has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of Future Gamings, as per the Electoral Bonds data released on Thursday by the Election Commission. Besides Trinamool Congress, Future Gaming gave Rs 509 crore to Tamil Nadu's ruling party DMK, nearly Rs 160 crore to Andhra Pradesh's YSR Congress Party, Rs 100 crore to BJP and Rs 50 crore to Congress.

Fresh Data Submitted by SBI with ‘Alphanumerics’ 

The Election Commission on Thursday made public a fresh data set of electoral bonds, including their alpha-numeric numbers that can help match their purchasers with the political parties that received the funds. 

In a compliance affidavit filed ahead of the 5 p.m. deadline set by the apex court, the SBI chairman said the complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties which redeemed the bonds have not been made public as it may compromise the security of these accounts. 

The SBI also said KYC details of purchasers have also not being made public for security reasons. It said complete bank account numbers and KYC details were not necessary for "identifying the political parties".