Not just electoral bonds, the BJP is biggest beneficiary of all forms of political finance

As more revelations tumble out about electoral bonds, the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party have mounted several defences for pocketing crores of rupees from a range of companies.

For one, Amit Shah claimed the party had received only Rs 6,000 crore of Rs 20,000 crore worth of bonds. As we explained here, he got both the numbers wrong.

The BJP received Rs 8,252 crore of the total Rs 16,492 crore redeemed through bonds – just over half the value. This means one party alone received more money from bonds than over 20 others.

Supporters of the BJP have argued there is nothing wrong with the party receiving money proportional to its share in Parliament.

This is a weak argument. India is a federal country with governments at both the Centre and in the states. The proportionality claim falls apart when you take that into account.

But more importantly – and this is what we want to highlight in this article – the actual share of the BJP in known political finance is actually much larger.

Anonymous electoral bonds – now discontinued after the Supreme Court held the scheme as illegal on February 15 – were only one instrument through which political parties received contributions.

Parties also accepted funds from electoral trusts, which counted large corporations as...

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