Page 5 - Electoral Bond

Jana Sena Party only unrecognised party to receive electoral bonds

A single party showed donations which have resulted in an uptick to donations to unrecognised parties

Vast majority of parties received no donations via electoral bonds

While several political parties received donations worth crores of rupees via electoral bonds, there is a vast majority which did not get any money through the now-scraped scheme for political funding. Over 500 recognised and unrecognised political parties had shared details on electoral bonds in sealed covers to the Supreme Court. The data was submitted through the Election Commission and was put in public domain by the poll panel on Sunday. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, which is a recognised national party, has told the Election Commission that it did not receive any funding through electoral bonds since the inception of the scheme. The National People's Party, which rules Meghalaya, is another national party which received no donations through electoral bonds. National Conference, a recognised state party in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, has disclosed receiving Rs 50 lakh from the Bharti group through electoral bonds. The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) disclosed i

Black money routed to BJP's accounts through electoral bonds, alleges Cong

The Congress on Sunday charged the government with engaging in "quid pro quo" for receiving electoral bonds and "conspiring" to route black money into the BJP's accounts through the scheme. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were answerable on the electoral bond "scam". He also accused the ruling party of indulging in "tax terrorism" and "surgical strikes" on the Congress after its accounts were frozen by the Income Tax authorities ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The opposition party also hoped the Election Commission would maintain "total impartiality and neutrality" during polls and would live up to its constitutional duties as expected by the people from it. Addressing a press conference, Ramesh alleged that the electoral bonds scheme introduced in 2018 was the "biggest extortion racket" ever run by the government, after it was revealed that the BJP garnered around Rs 6,800 crore through electoral bonds while

Electoral bonds an 'experiment', says RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on Sunday said the electoral bonds is an "experiment" and time will tell how beneficial and effective it has been. The RSS Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) on Sunday re-elected Dattatreya Hosabale for the post of 'Sarkaryavah' (general secretary) for three years. The Election Commission on Thursday released the electoral bonds data, with a number of billionaire tycoons and lesser-known entities being among the buyers. From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations. Asked about concerns being raised on the electoral bonds issue and claims that they were purchased to get favours, Hosabale said the Sangh has not yet discussed about it as the electoral bonds is an "experiment". "It ...

BJP got Rs 6,986.5 cr via poll bonds; Future Gaming top donor for DMK

The JD(S) received bonds worth Rs 89.75 crore, including Rs 50 crore from Megha Engineering, the second largest purchaser of electoral bonds

Plea seeks details of electoral bonds sold from Mar 1, 2018 to Apr 11, 2019

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking disclosure of the details of electoral bonds sold from March 1, 2018, to April 11, 2019, saying voters are entitled to know funding to political parties for the entire period since the start of the scheme. In a landmark verdict last month, the top court scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorised financial institution under the scheme, to submit the details of the bonds purchased from April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024 to the Election Commission of India (ECI). A new application, filed by Citizen's Rights Trust, has submitted that 9,159 bonds worth Rs 4,002 crore have been sold between March 2018 to April 2019 which should also be disclosed. The petition seeks a direction to the SBI to share the details of electoral bonds sold and redeemed from March 1, 2018, to April 11, 2019, including the alphanumeric

ECI publishes details of electoral bond data on its website: See full list

22,217 electoral bonds were bought from 2019-24, of which 22,030 were redeemed, according to SBI

Congress demands Supreme Court monitored probe on electoral bonds issue

Stepping up its attack on the government over the electoral bonds issue, the Congress on Saturday alleged that thousands of crores have been "extorted" from corporate India and asserted that the need for a Supreme Court-monitored independent probe is pressing. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the BJP's four "corrupt tactics" -- "Chanda Do, Dhandha Lo (give donations, get business), Hafta Vasuli (extortion), Theka Lo-Rishvat Do (get contracts after paying bribe), Farzi Company - Dakait Sangni (loot through shell companies) -- emerged after a quick first analysis of the data on the "electoral bond scam". These four patterns of corruption that have emerged are of grave concern and the need for a Supreme Court-monitored independent probe is pressing, Ramesh said in a post on X. "In fact, since yesterday, we have seen dozens of examples of these kinds of corruption emerge. Thousands of crores have been extorted and extracted from corporate India, and thousands of crores of

Ex-CEC S Y Quraishi bats for more transparency in political funding

Former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Friday pitched for enhanced transparency in political funding, saying people should know who is giving money to parties. In a video interview with PTI, he said transparency of political funding is extremely important for free and fair elections. "Free and fair elections are the basic structure of the Indian Constitution," he underlined. He said it is important for people to know what kind of money -- dirty money or drug money -- is coming. He said it was important to know the nexus between the donors and government policies "as there are no free lunches". People want to know who is funding the government (apparently referring to the ruling party), he said. He said there may be instances that those donating may end up grabbing licences, contracts, bank loans "on which they default." "All these things have to be in the public domain," he said. His remarks come against the backdrop of the Supreme Court on Friday admonishing the St

Electoral bonds: 100 listed firms across 32 sectors are donors, shows data

The top five sectors accounted for over 60 per cent of the total donations

Electoral bonds: Four financial service firms bought bonds worth Rs 87 cr

Electoral bonds: SBI has issued electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore in 30 tranches since the inception of the scheme in 2018

Electoral bond data: Smaller companies donated larger share of profit

The top 10 companies by market capitalisation (mcap) contributed over Rs 362 crore

Infra companies among top electoral bond donors: Election Commission

Cement majors donated Rs 233 crore; in mining and metals, Vedanta, Aditya Birla Group also figure among top 10

Firms report electoral bonds under donations, miscellaneous expenses

A reading of the reports suggests that there is no standard practice for reporting political contributions and it is left to the company's discretion to report them as they find fit

'Why malign India Inc? Electoral bonds just tip of poll funding iceberg'

While most companies have mentioned about their spending in electoral bonds in some form in their annual reports, very few have been upfront and categorical about their disclosures

At least 4 Kolkata companies in list of top 10 electoral bond donors

Apart from leading business groups, there is a variety of small businesses that have shelled out hundreds of crores for electoral bonds

Highlights: Paytm Payments Bank releases FAQs on refund, closing FASTags

Latest news updates: Catch all the news updates from around the world here

SBI 'duty bound' to disclose electoral bond number: Supreme Court

SBI shared the data with the EC on March 12, following a Supreme Court directive, which allowed the EC until 5 PM on March 15 to upload the information on its website

Need to learn lessons from electoral bonds scheme, says FM Sitharaman

Sitharaman observed that more people are investing directly in stock market. Finance minister noted stability of Indian stock market, advocating for it to operate independently

Electoral bonds was world's biggest extortion racket, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that the electoral bonds scheme was the world's biggest extortion racket and a "brainchild" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at a press conference here, Gandhi, who is on the last leg of his 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', also claimed that the funds obtained through the scheme were used to split parties like the Shiv Sena and NCP, and topple governments. Congress' central election committee and party president Mallikarjun Kharge would decide if he should contest the Lok Sabha election from Amethi, he said in reply to a question. "Some years ago, the prime minister claimed to have designed the electoral bonds (scheme) to clean up the political finance system. It turns out that this was the way of extorting money from India's largest corporates. It was meant to intimidate corporates into giving money to the BJP....It is the largest extortion racket in the world....I hope investigation takes place," he said. To a question about some