Electoral Bonds: Lottery company among India's top political donors - BBC News

The Election Commission released the full list of the donors and the amount received by political parties.

8 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Last month, India's Supreme Court banned the scheme, calling it "unconstitutional".A lottery company has topped a list of India's leading political donors.

Donations were made under an electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymity for people and companies.

Future Gaming and Hotel Services emerged as the largest donor, acquiring bonds worth at 13bn rupees ($156.7m, £123m) from April 2019 to January 2024.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the biggest beneficiary, securing almost half of the bonds worth 120bn rupees donated between 2018 and 2024.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government had launched the electoral bonds scheme in 2018. While the government had claimed the scheme would make political funding more transparent, critics say it did the opposite instead and made the process more opaque.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-68509410

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