Page 43 - Election Commission Of India

Intention behind electoral bonds was good, all parties need funds: Gadkari

Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said it was not possible to run a political party without funds, and added that the Centre had introduced the electoral bonds scheme, now struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in 2017 with a "good intention". The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said all political parties need to sit together and deliberate if the Supreme Court gives any further direction on the matter. He made the comments at an event organised by a media house in GIFT City near Gandhinagar on Friday. "When Arun Jaitely was (Union finance) minister, I was part of that discussion (regarding electoral bonds). No party can survive without resources. In some countries, governments fund political parties. There is no such system in India. Thus, we chose this system of financing political parties," said Gadkari on a question about electoral bonds. He noted the main intention behind introducing electoral bonds was that political parties get funds directly, but th

Interfering with appointment of ECs would lead to chaos, says Supreme Court

"Suspension of legislation pending consideration is an exception and not the rule," the Supreme Court observed on Friday while dismissing pleas challenging the appointment of election commissioners under a 2023 law, saying interfering with the selection process would lead to "chaos and a virtual constitutional breakdown". A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, which pronounced the order dismissing the pleas against the appointment of election commissioners (ECs) Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu on Thursday, gave detailed reasons for its findings. It, however, expressed concern on the procedure adopted for the selection of ECs and said such selection should be made with full details and particulars of the candidates circulated among all members of the selection panel comprising the prime minister, leader of the largest opposition party in Parliament and a Union minister nominated by the prime minister. "Procedural sanctity of the selection process requires a fair

Electoral bonds worth Rs 9.6 crore purchased by 33 entities expired

Before the Supreme Court declared the electoral bonds illegal, they were valid only for 15 days from the date of issue to be encashed

41 companies facing probe by central agencies in electoral bond list

Forty-one companies facing probe by the CBI, ED and the I-T Department gave Rs 2,471 crore to the BJP through electoral bonds, and Rs 1,698 crore of it was donated after raids by these agencies, civil society activists who challenged the poll funding scheme in the Supreme Court claimed on Friday. Addressing the media after the Election Commission made public a fresh data set of electoral bonds, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioners in the court, said at least 30 shell companies purchased electoral bonds worth over Rs 143 crore. He said 33 groups which have got 172 major contracts and project approvals from the government also made donations through electoral bonds. "They have got a total of Rs 3.7 lakh crore in projects and contracts, in exchange for Rs 1,751 crore electoral bond donations to the BJP," he alleged. Bhushan also claimed that 41 companies which faced raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the .

Electoral bond disclosures: Jalan group bonds well with political parties

Financial records of two group companies show that the donations gave are disproportionately high compared to the of the firms, at least in the years they purchased the bonds

Intention behind bringing electoral bonds scheme was good: Nitin Gadkari

Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said it is not possible to run a political party without funds and added the Centre had introduced the electoral bonds scheme, now struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in 2017 with a "good intention". The senior BJP leader said all political parties need to sit together and deliberate if the Supreme Court gives any further direction on the matter. He made the comments at an event organised by a media house in GIFT City near Gandhinagar. "When Arun Jaitely was (Union finance) minister, I was part of that discussion (regarding electoral bonds). No party can survive without resources. In some countries, governments fund political parties. There is no such system in India. Thus, we chose this system of financing political parties," said Gadkari on a question about electoral bonds. He noted the main intention behind introducing electoral bonds was that political parties get funds directly, but the names (of donors) are not ...

BJP biggest beneficiary of Aurobindo Pharma's Rs 52 cr electoral bonds

Aurobindo Pharma, one of whose directors was arrested in the Delhi liquor scam, had bought electoral bonds for a total of Rs 52 crore with more than half of it going to the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to data released by the Election Commission. The Hyderabad-based firm had purchased electoral bonds between April 3, 2021 to November 8, 2023 and Rs 34.5 crore was donated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rs 15 crore to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and Rs 2.5 crore to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The drug maker purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore on November 15, 2022 five days after one of its directors, P Sarath Chandra Reddy was arrested for involvement in money laundering linked to the controversial Delhi excise policy, which has been scrapped. Comments from the company could not be obtained. As per the Election Commission data, BJP encashed this sum on November 21, 2022. Last year in June, Reddy turned approver in the case after a Delhi court allowed him to

Bharti Airtel, subsidiary donated Rs 234 cr to BJP via electoral bonds

Bharti Airtel and its subsidiary Bharti Telemedia bought around Rs 235 crore of electoral bonds and donated all but about Rs 1 crore to the ruling BJP, according to data released by the Election Commission. Bharti Airtel donated nearly Rs 197.5 crore to BJP, Rs 50 lakh to J&K National Conference, and Rs 10 lakh to Rashtriya Janata Dal. Bharti Telemedia, which is a subsidiary of the Sunil Mittal-led telecom firm Bharti Airtel, donated bonds worth Rs 37 crore to BJP, the data showed. In all, the two Bharti Group entities donated about Rs 234 crore to BJP, via electoral bonds. A mail sent to Bharti Airtel for comments did not elicit a response. Meanwhile, in a sharp contrast to big corporate houses that gave large sums to political parties, IT companies in India donated just around Rs 15 crore to various political parties through electoral bonds, as per the data. In the IT pack, Cyient contributed the most - donating Rs 10 crore to BJP, while Zensar Technologies contributed Rs 3 ...

FIR against BJP MP Tejasvi Surya for alleged hate post on social media

An FIR has been registered against BJP MP Tejasvi Surya over an alleged hate post on social media, Election Commission officials said on Friday. The move comes after a complaint filed by officials of the poll body and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) that the Bengaluru South MP, who is also the President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, had in a post allegedly targeted a minority and spread enmity between two communities. He also made a similar post on March 19 on 'X' and YouTube which got one million views, 587 comments, 5400 retweets and 13 likes. He has 1.3 million followers on X, thereby influencing the voters and disturbing the communal harmony between the communities, it further alleged. Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered at Halasuru Gate police station on March 20 under sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295

Company that's biggest electoral bond donor funded 10 state-level parties

Future Gaming and Hotel Services spread its bets across national and regional players

INDIA bloc to raise objection against 'targeting' of Oppn leaders with EC

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee condemned the arrest of Delhi CM Kejriwal; said INDIA bloc will meet with the Election Commission to object against the 'deliberate targeting' of Opposition leaders

Firm gave BJP Rs 25 cr in donations after director's arrest: Bharadwaj

Senior AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday claimed that a pharmacy firm paid Rs 25 crore to the BJP through electoral bonds after its director was arrested in the excise policy case. Addressing a press conference here, Bharadwaj also said that there was a threat to the life of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday night. "It is being repeatedly said that there is threat to the life of Kejriwal who has been arrested without any evidence," Bharadwaj said. A Hyderabad-based Pharma company whose director was arrested by ED in the excise policy case paid Rs 25 crore in electoral bonds to the BJP in November 2022, he alleged. "So the money trail and proceeds of crime in this excise case are heading to the BJP," he said. The minister said there was no evidence of any money trail or proceeds of crimes against AAP and Kejriwal as was being charged. Bhar

Electoral bonds: Megha Engineering, Qwik Supply big donors for ruling BJP

The BJP, the biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds with donations worth over Rs 6,000 crore in the last four years of the scheme, got funds from several corporates and individuals, including Megha Engineering, Future Gaming, and Reliance-linked Qwik Supply. Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, which won several contracts for infrastructure projects, donated Rs 584 crore to the BJP, Qwik Supply Rs 395 crore, and Future Gaming Rs 100 crore, according to data released by the Election Commission on Thursday. The BJP also got Rs 346 crore from Keventers Food Park, MKJ Enterprises and Madanlal Ltd -- three firms with the same Kolkata address, Vedanata contributed Rs 226 crore, and Haldia Energy Rs 81 crore. Vedanta was also a key contributor to the Congress with donations worth Rs 125 crore. The opposition party also received funds from Western UP Power and Transmission, MKJ Enterprises and Yashoda Super Speciality Hospitals. The BJP also got donations worth Rs 80 crore from Western UP Po

Election Commission publishes electoral bond data with matching numbers

The 552 page list of parties that redeemed these bonds is of the duration April 12, 2019 to January 24, 2024. The EC said it has uploaded the data received from the SBI on "as is where is basis"

Needed: Solutions for political finance

As the apex court has ruled, the electoral bond scheme was not appropriate

Containing disinformation

Initiatives by digital giants will be critical

SBI submits all electoral bond details, including unique numbers, to ECI

The unique numbers would match the buyers and the recipient political parties of the electoral bonds

EC releases electoral bonds data with bond numbers: See full list

The data also include details of redemption by political parties, including serial number, date of encashment, and name of political party, among other information

Gaps remain in electoral bond information despite additional disclosures

The Election Commission of India is set to release information on serial numbers enabling matching of donors with the parties to which they donated money

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Key things to know about phase four polls

Lok Sabha polls: In the fourth stage, 96 seats across 10 states and UTs will go to polls, including the entire Telangana and Andhra Pradesh