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The government on Wednesday approved issuance of the 21st tranche of electoral bonds that will open for sale from July 1. Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding. State Bank of India (SBI), in the 21st phase of sale, has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches with effect from July 1 to July 10, the finance ministry said in a statement. The authorised SBI branches include those in Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai. Assembly elections are due in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh later this year. Polls for five states -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Goa -- concluded in March this year. The 20th tranche of bond sales took place from April 1 to April 10, 2022. The sale of the first batch of electoral b