Election bonds donated by Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd. to the AIADMK are the largest.
During a short period of time across India, i.e. in early April 2019, around the last general elections, Tamil Nadu’s former ruling party Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) received a large amount of money through electoral bonds, mostly Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited (CSK), whose parent company is India Cements, and certain other entities.
The AIADMK was preparing for a major electoral battle and battling to maintain its political legacy in the run-up to the 2018 Lok Sabha elections. The party received a significant increase in electoral bond revenues in the days before the polls, mostly as a result of contributions from CSK and Gopal Srinivasan of TVS Group.
The AIADMK received 38 electoral bonds, which were credited on April 15, 2019, including 29 from the CSK and 5 from TVS’s Srinivasan, according to the most recent statistics made available. Every bond issued by CSK had a value of Rs 10 lakh, with the exception of the first bond, which had a price of Rs 1 crore and a total value of Rs 3.8 crore. This amounts to over 50% of the Rs 6.05 crore that the party received in April 2019.
Before the elections in early April 2019, all 38 bonds were issued, albeit the precise dates of issuance are still unknown.
Even though the AIADMK ruled the state from 2011 to 2021, internal strife following the 2016 death of its leader J Jayalalithaa caused the party to suffer its greatest electoral losses in the elections for the Lok Sabha in 2019 and the Assembly in 2021. A crucial period of consolidation under the leadership of former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was brought about by the internal conflict that followed and the merger that resulted in the removal of temporary General Secretary V K Sasikala by mid-2017.
Even though the AIADMK ruled the state from 2011 to 2021, internal strife following the 2016 death of its leader J Jayalalithaa caused the party to suffer its greatest electoral losses in the elections for the Lok Sabha in 2019 and the Assembly in 2021. A crucial period of consolidation under the leadership of former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was brought about by the internal conflict that followed and the merger that resulted in the removal of temporary General Secretary V K Sasikala by mid-2017.