COMPLETE LIST: 37 Pharma, Health Cos bought Electoral Bonds for Rs 903 crore, Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital top buyer with Rs 162 crore

New Delhi: Around 37 pharma and healthcare companies bought electoral bonds worth around Rs 903 crore, revealed the data by the Election Commission on Thursday.

Complying with the Supreme Court order dated February 15, by which a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, the Election Commission published the detailed data on electoral bonds provided by the State Bank of India (SBI).

Among the healthcare companies, Yashodha Super-Speciality Hospital is one of the top buyers as it purchased 162 electoral bonds worth Rs 162 crores in six trenches. Altogether 17 bonds were purchased in 2021, 89 bonds were purchased in 2022, and 56 bonds were purchased in 2023.

Yashoda Hospitals is a chain of hospitals based in Hyderabad, Telangana set up by Dr. G Surendar Rao. Currently, Dheeraj Gorukanti is the CEO of Yashoda Group of Hospitals and all its branches are NABH and NABL accredited.

While Dr. Reddy's Laboratory purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 84 crore, Torrent Pharmaceuticals bought electoral bonds worth Rs 77.5 crores, followed by Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma, which spent Rs 69.25 crore for buying electoral bonds.

The data revealed that Sun Pharma, which is one of the largest Pharma companies in India and has its headquarters in Mumbai purchased 36 electoral bonds worth Rs 31.5 crore in April-May 2019. Torrent Pharmaceuticals, which has its headquarters in Ahmedabad, is possibly the biggest buyer among the pharma companies. It purchased 91 electoral bonds worth Rs 77.5 crore. Among these 17 bonds were purchased by the company in 2019, 12 bonds were purchased in 2021, 25 bonds were purchased in 2022, 7 bonds were purchased in 2023, and 30 were bought in 2024 itself.

Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma, purchased 76 electoral bonds worth Rs 69.25 crore. Among these, 7 bonds were purchased in 2019, 1 was purchased in 2021, 15 bonds were purchased in 2022, 32 bonds were purchased in 2023, and 21 bonds were purchased in 2024. Aurobindo Pharma, which is headquartered in Hyderabad, purchased 70 bonds worth Rs 51.1 crore in between 2019 and 2023.

Apart from these, Divi's Laboratories purchased bonds worth Rs 55 crore, MSN Pharmachem purchased bonds worth Rs 26 crore, MSN Laboratories purchased bonds worth Rs 10 crore, Ajanta Pharma purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 4 crore, Intas Pharma purchased electoral bond worth Rs 20 crore, Glenmark Pharma purchased bonds worth Rs 9.75 crore, Mankind Pharma purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 24 crore, Alembicpharma purchased bonds worth 10.2 crore, Panacea Biotech Pharma purchased bonds worth Rs 1 crore, Piramal Pharma purchased electoral bonds worth 3 crores, Hetero Biopharma purchased bonds worth Rs 5 crore, Hetero Drugs purchased bonds worth Rs 30 crore, Hetero Labs worth bonds worth Rs 25 crore and Eugia Pharma purchased electoral bonds of Rs 15 crore, revealed the data. 

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the founder of Biocon Ltd. purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore, Micro Labs ltd. purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 16 crore and Bharat Biotech International Ltd. purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories, based in Hyderabad, spent Rs 84 crores in purchasing 84 electoral bonds. Cipla, the pharma company headquartered in Mumbai purchased 41 electoral bonds worth Rs 39.2 crore. Apart from these, the data revealed that Zydus Healthcare purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 29 crore and APL Healthcare spent Rs 10 crore for this purpose.

The electoral bond data was revealed by the Commission after in a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients.

The top court had given the Election Commission time till 5 pm of March 15 to upload the data on its website. Complying with the order, EC released the details on 'Disclosure of Electoral Bonds Submitted by SBI' in two parts -- one listing the buyers and the other listing the beneficiary parties -- on its website a day before the court-mandated deadline, adds PTI.

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the SBI said a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of varying denominations were purchased by donors between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties.

Also Read:No gift should be offered for personal benefit of healthcare professional by pharma co, its agent: UCPMP 2024 guidelines