Number Theory: What does latest Electoral Bond data tell us?

There were 62 companies whose paid-up capital was ₹1 lakh — the minimum mandated under Indian laws, which is usually the preserve of small companies

On March 21, the Election Commission of India released details of purchasers and redeemers with alpha numeric codes which makes it possible to match donors and recipients for ₹12,146 crore out of 12,769 worth of Electoral Bonds redeemed from April 12, 2019. howindialives.com has matched 771 companies out of the 1,263 buyers, covering ₹11,484 crore out of the total ₹12,155 crore purchased from April 12, 2019 with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) database of companies. Here are five key takeaways from this matching of ECI and MCA data.

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What does latest Electoral Bond data tell us?

• 
  Encashed by parties, but no donors

  In the data released, there are 1,680 bonds, amounting to ₹623 crore, that were encashed by political parties but for which a corresponding donor could not be established probably because these bonds were purchased before the threshold date for which there is purchaser data. These were all encashed between April 12 and April 25, 2019. About 75% of this went to the BJP and 11% to the INC.
• 
  Donors who gave ₹100 crore and above

  There were 22 companies that gave donations of ₹100 crore and above. These accounted for about half the total donations given since April 12, 2019, the period from which data has been released. For 11 of these companies, the BJP was the largest recipient of their donations.
• 
  Sector-wise split of donations to parties

  Companies from just 5 sectors – trading, construction, manufacturing (metals and chemicals), mining and quarrying, real estate and renting -- accounted for about two-thirds of the total donations given via electoral bonds. For each of these 5 sectors, the biggest recipient was the BJP.
• 
  Donations by companies with minimum mandated paid-up capital

  There were 62 companies whose paid-up capital was ₹1 lakh—the minimum mandated under Indian laws for a company, which is usually the preserve of small companies. These 62 companies donated a cumulative ₹235 crore. Of this, the BJP received the most, 31%, followed by INC and AITC, with 15% each.
• 
  State-wise split

  Companies registered in West Bengal were the biggest purchasers, followed by those in Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The BJP and AITC feature prominently among the list of parties to whom they donated to.