A Right to Information (RTI) reply this week showed that the majority of electoral bonds sold in April were encashed in Hyderabad, at a time when speculation of early elections to the Telangana Assembly was rife.
In response to a query by RTI activist Kanhaiya Kumar, State Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday said electoral bonds worth ₹648 crore were sold in the 20th tranche of the scheme from April 1 to April 10. Out of that, around ₹425 crore worth of bonds were sold from the Hyderabad branch, followed by ₹100 crore in the Chennai branch. The rest of the bonds were sold in Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Panaji branches.