The BJP, the ruling party at the Centre since 2014, has been the biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds, redeeming a total of Rs 6,061 crore between April 2019 and February 2024, according to data published by the Election Commission and the State Bank of India (SBI). Trailing behind the BJP are the Trinamool Congress (TMC) at Rs 1,610 crore and the Congress at Rs 1,422 crore for the same period.
An analysis of each party’s redemptions reveals a telling pattern: while the BJP cashed in significant amounts with almost every tranche, the TMC and the Congress’s fortunes were more closely linked to elections and, in particular, election victories.
Between April 2019 and February 2024, the SBI issued electoral bonds in 22 tranches. Across these tranches, the BJP redeemed an average Rs 275.5 crore in each window, about three times more than the average for the TMC at Rs 73.2 crore and the Congress at Rs 64.6 crore.
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For the tranches in April and May 2019, before the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP redeemed Rs 1,772 crore, which accounts for 29.2% of the party’s total redemption since April 2019. In contrast, the Congress redeemed just Rs 168.6 crore and the TMC Rs 51.7 crore during the general elections.
After a lull in the July 2019 tranche, the BJP saw a major spike in redemptions in October 2019 when it received Rs 185.2 crore. The Congress redeemed just Rs 1.8 crore. This window came prior to the Assembly polls in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. While the BJP won in Haryana, with support from the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), and in Maharashtra with ally Shiv Sena (undivided at the time), the Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) alliance came to power in Jharkhand.
During the Covid-affected tranches of October 2020 and January 2021, redemptions for the BJP, Congress and TMC fell despite the Assembly election in Bihar. While the TMC, ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls, got Rs 43.4 crore, the BJP and Congress lagged in this period at Rs 25.4 crore and Rs 10.1 crore, respectively.
The three parties saw their next spikes in April 2021, when the West Bengal polls were underway. That month, the BJP redeemed Rs 291.5 crore, the Congress Rs 58.8 crore and the TMC Rs 55.4 crore.
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Though the BJP recorded a significant improvement to become the Opposition party in the Assembly having had a negligible presence in the state, in the two electoral bonds windows that followed the results (July and October 2021), it redeemed Rs 80 crore compared to Rs 249.5 crore for the TMC, which returned to power for a third consecutive term. The Congress, meanwhile, was reduced to zero seats in the Assembly but got Rs 58.1 crore from electoral bonds after the polls.
In January 2022, the BJP’s redemptions jumped to Rs 662.2 crore. The Congress, too, saw an increase to Rs 119.3 crore. This window fell just before Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. The BJP came to power in all but one state – Punjab, where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ousted the Congress.
Notably, the TMC redeemed Rs 224.2 crore in January 2022 despite contesting in only the Goa elections.
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Later in 2022, in the run-up and during the Assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh held in November and December, the BJP redeemed Rs 990.3 crore across three tranches, compared to the Congress’s Rs 104.6 crore.
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In what were direct contests between the two national parties, the BJP recorded a landslide win to retain power in Gujarat while the Congress shocked the incumbent BJP in Himachal. Immediately after their wins, while the BJP redeemed Rs 192.8 crore in January 2023, the Congress managed just Rs 91 lakh.
Despite not contesting either of these polls, the TMC redeemed Rs 240.6 crore in four windows between October 2022 and January 2023, putting it far ahead of the Congress. The January 2023 window also preceded Assembly polls in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, all of which were won by alliances that included the BJP.
In April 2023, a month before the fiercely contested Karnataka Assembly polls, both the BJP and Congress saw considerable increases in redemptions. While the BJP, the state’s incumbent party, redeemed Rs 334.2 crore, the Congress got Rs 190.6 crore, which was the party’s largest redemption in a single tranche up to that point.
The Congress went on to record a significant victory, giving the party a boost ahead of the Assembly polls in five states later that year. Again, the TMC, despite not contesting in polls around that time, redeemed almost as much as the Congress in April 2023 at Rs 187 crore. In fact, in the July 2023 tranche that followed the Karnataka results, the TMC redeemed the most bonds among these parties at Rs 117 crore, compared to Rs 86.9 crore for the BJP and just Rs 20.5 crore for the Congress.
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Across the following windows in October and November 2023, both the BJP and the Congress redeemed considerable sums during a period when five states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram – went to polls.
The BJP secured a total Rs 1,062.4 en route to winning Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress and retaining power in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress got Rs 581.4 crore but won just Telangana.
In the following January 2024 window, months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and with the Supreme Court hearing on the electoral bonds scheme underway, the BJP redeemed Rs 202 crore, followed by the TMC at Rs 73.2 crore and the Congress at Rs 64.6 crore.
