Page 2 - Political Funding

SC refers to 5-judge bench pleas challenging electoral bond scheme

The Supreme Court on Monday referred to a five-judge Constitution bench a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said they have received an application that the matter being urgent be sent to a larger bench for a conclusive judgement. The bench said the matter will be taken up on October 30, the date of hearing fixed earlier. Earlier, the bench had taken note of the submissions of lawyer Prashant Bhushan that the matter needed adjudication before the electoral bond scheme opens for the 2024 general elections and had decided to fix it for final hearing. There are four PILs pending on the issue. One of the PIL petitioners had said in March that so far Rs 12,000 crore has been paid to political parties through electoral bonds and the two-third of the amount has gone to one major political party. Electoral bonds have been pitched a

Electoral bonds worth Rs 10,246 crore sold by SBI in 21 tranches

Electoral bonds worth Rs 10,246 crore have been sold by the State Bank of India (SBI) since the instrument was launched in March 2018. Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency to political funding. In an RTI reply, SBI said the majority of these bonds were of one crore while less than 10 per cent of subscriptions were of lower denominations -- ten lakh, one lakh, ten thousand and one thousand. About 93.5 per cent of total bonds sold were in the denomination of Rs 1 crore, according to an RTI filed by Chandra Shekhar Gaur. Only 0.25 per cent in value terms were from one lakh, ten thousand and one thousand denominations. SBI has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through 29 authorised branches. The authorised SBI branches include those in Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai.

Govt clears 23rd tranche of electoral bonds; open for sale on Wednesday

Ahead of assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the government on Monday approved issuance of the 23rd tranche of electoral bonds that will open for sale on November 9. The Gujarat assembly elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, while Himachal Pradesh will go to polls on November 12. 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 23rd phase of sale, has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through 29 authorised branches from November 9-15, the finance ministry said in a statement. Usually, electoral bond tranches are open for sale between 1-10 of a designated month. For instance, the 22nd tranche of bond sales took place from October 1-10, 2022 while 21st tranche was from July 1-10, 2022. Sale of the first batch of electoral bonds happened from March 1-10, 2018. The authorised SBI branches

The wrong reform

Electoral bonds do not address corruption in political funding

Re-elected MLAs from ruling party added more wealth than others

Analysis also shows average wealth of re-elected candidates was higher than that of elected candidates

There are two separate but linked questions about India's NGO policy

It's shameful that Indian organisations can't, or won't, donate to NGOs.

21 Indian-Americans collected $100,000 each for presidential nominee Biden

At least 21 people of Indian descent figure on the list of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's list of elite contribution-collectors pitching in more than $100,000 to his campaign coffers

US elections: Facebook tightens political ad bans to curb voter fraud

New prohibitions laid out in a blog post come days after President Donald Trump raised the prospect of mass fraud in the vote-by-mail process

BJP retains top position among richest parties; Congress losing ground fast

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had requested recommendations from the ICAI to bring uniformity in the accounting and auditing practices of political parties

Over 50% funds for national parties in FY 2017-18 from unknown sources: ADR

According to the report, the total income of BJP, Congress, CPI, BSP, TMC, and NCP in 2017-18 was Rs 1,293.05 crore

SP's assets increased 198% in 5 years, AIADMK's 155%: Report

The SP, the AIADMK, the AIFB and the Shiv Sena were the only major regional parties to show a steady increase in their annual declared assets

Govt open to proposals to further cleanse political funding: Arun Jaitley

The bonds are being pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties

Probity and political funding

Given the international practice, it's inexplicable why govt is going with anonymous electoral bonds

Glaring holes

Without transparency, there can be no reform

State funding of polls not practical, says FM Arun Jaitley

But he says that the govt is open to the idea

How India's political funding laws stack up to global peers

The laws relating to electoral and political funding have gained traction of late

National parties received over Rs 100 cr in donations above Rs 20k

BJP led the pack at Rs 76.85 crore from 613 donations

Political funding declines 84% but there is small uptick in cash donations

According to the Election Commission guidelines, all political parties have to declare donations above Rs 20,000 to it in an affidavit