NEW DELHI, March 14 (Reuters) - Some of India's biggest

companies, including Vedanta Ltd, Bharti Airtel

, RPSG Group and Essel Mining were among the country's

top political funders over the last five years under a

now-scrapped opaque political funding system, official data

showed on Thursday.

The information was made public by the Election Commission

of India following an order on Monday from the country's top

court.

The political funding mechanism introduced in 2017 allowed

companies and individuals to donate unlimited amounts

anonymously to political parties.

The funding system, called Electoral Bonds, was challenged

by opposition lawmakers and a civil society group on the grounds

that it hindered the public's right to know who had given money

to political parties. The Supreme Court banned Electoral Bonds

last month, calling them "unconstitutional".

Under the system, a person or company could buy bonds from

government-owned State Bank of India and donate them to

a political party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party was

the largest beneficiary of these bonds, which were donations,

garnering 55% of the bonds worth 120 billion rupees ($1.45

billion) donated between January 2018 and January 2024 by people

and companies.

($1 = 82.9200 Indian rupees)