The Odisha-based party has received Rs 67.28 crore from the corporate sector and Rs 3.32 crore from other sources.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the richest regional political party in the country between 2016-17 and 2022-23, has received Rs 775.5 crore through electoral bonds.

The Naveen Patnaik-led party has received a total donation of Rs 844.6 crore during the seven-year period of which a whopping around 90 per cent is in the form of electoral bonds.

According to the SBI electoral bond data shared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday, the regional party has encashed 766 bonds of Rs 1 crore denomination and 95 bonds of Rs 10 lakh denomination, total valued at Rs 775.5 crore between July 20, 2019 and November 24, 2023. It has encashed a majority of the bonds during 2020-21 and 2021-22 Covid pandemic period.

BJD topped the chart of regional parties in terms of receiving electoral bonds as donations. It is the fifth highest receiver of the bonds among all the parties in the country after BJP (Rs 6,060.51 crore), TMC (Rs 1,609.53 crore), Congress (Rs 1,421.85 crore) and BRS (Rs 1,214.61 crore).

Several companies, including Utkal Alumina International Ltd, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, Vedanta Ltd, Rungta Sons Pvt Ltd, Essel Mining and Industries Ltd, Grasim Industries Ltd, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, Thriveni Earth Movers Pvt Ltd, M/s SN Mohanty, Indrani Patnaik, Misrilall Mines Pvt Ltd, Orissa Metaliks Pvt Ltd, Shree Jagannath Steels and Power Ltd, Ramco Cements Ltd, JK Paper Ltd and Welspun Group, which are into mining, metal and other businesses in Odisha figure in the list of bond purchasers.

The electoral bonds, since its introduction in 2018, seems to have replaced all traditional forms of funding for the BJD, which has received most of the donations above Rs 20,000 through this method. The Odisha-based party has also received Rs 67.28 crore from the corporate sector and Rs 3.32 crore from other sources.

The analysis of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) indicated, BJD received Rs 13 crore in 2017-18, Rs 29 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 25.28 crore in 2019-20 from the corporate sector. It did not receive any corporate donation in 2016-17, 2020-21 and 2021-22. The donations to regional parties from electoral bonds and the corporate sector were highest in 2021-22 and 2018-19, respectively.

BJD has declared to have received Rs 7 crore from Prudent Electoral Trust, Rs 25.28 crore from Progressive Electoral Trust and Rs 35 crore from AB General Electoral Trust, the ADR analysis found.

The electoral bonds have dominated the other forms of funding and completely overshadowed others in 2021-22 and 2022-23 as almost all donations the party received are in the form of electoral bonds.

In 2018-19, BJD had received Rs 213 crore as electoral bonds, which is nearly 87.9 per cent of the total donations. Thereafter, the share of bonds in the total contributions to the party has only increased to 99 per cent in 2020-2021 and 100 per cent in 2021-22 and 2022-23. The party had received Rs 291 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 152 crore in 2022-23.

Richie Rich

 844.6 cr in 7 years

 90% of the amount in electoral bonds

 766 bonds of Rs 1 crore denomination

 95 bonds of Rs 10 lakh denomination

 5th highest receiver of bonds among all parties