New Delhi:

The Election Commission has released data that have numbers to match donors with political parties their contribution went to. The data was submitted to the Commission earlier today by the State Bank of India in line with the Supreme Court order.

The bank had earlier given two lists to the Election Commission, which were released by the poll panel on its website on March 14.

New Delhi:

Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s reference to electoral bonds as ‘hafta vasooli‘, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the Congress leader needs to clarify where he obtained Rs 1,600 crore from.

“Gandhi also received Rs 1,600 crore. He should clarify where he got that ‘hafta vasooli‘ from. We assert that it’s a transparent donation, but if he labels it as vasooli, he should provide details,” Mr Shah said in a video posted on his X account.

When asked if the BJP would disclose their donor list like other parties, Mr Shah responded, “I assure you, once the details are out, the INDIA alliance will find it hard to face the public.”

“Electoral bonds were introduced to end the domination of black money in Indian politics, they were brought to eradicate black money. Now the scheme has been scrapped and I fear the return of black money,” Mr Shah said.

He further stated that there should be reforms regarding the electoral bonds, rather than scrapping it.

“I believe that rather than scrapping it, there should be reforms, but it does not hold any significance, as the top court has given its verdict and I respect that,” he added.

“But my personal opinion is that bonds had almost ended black money in politics. This is why the entire INDIA bloc, led by Rahul Gandhi, was against the bonds and they wanted the old system of cut money to rule over politics once again,” the senior BJP leader stated.

The Electoral Bond Scheme was a way for political parties in India to get money without revealing the donor’s identity. But, the Supreme Court, in a ruling in February, struck down the scheme and ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to stop issuing electoral bonds immediately.

In compliance with a directive from the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India (ECI) recently uploaded data on electoral bonds on its official website. The SBI had supplied the information, which includes details about these electoral bonds.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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 number, date of purchase, denomination, names of donors and parties to the ECI.

“It is submitted that once the entire Electoral Bond Scheme is held to be violative of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, the citizens are entitled to know the details of the donor and donee of the entire period from March 2018 onwards (the date when the scheme became functional).

“The data available on the platform of the Election Commission represents only 76 per cent of the total bonds and the voters are not aware of the details of the remaining 24 per cent of the Electoral Bonds,” the plea said.

The association, represented through senior advocate Vijay Hansaria and advocate Sneha Kalita, submitted that the cut-off date of April 12, 2019, is relevant only for furnishing information by political parties to the Election Commission as an interim arrangement when the matter was sub-judice before the Supreme court.

“Once, this court, in the final judgement and order dated February 15, 2024, has struck down the entire Electoral Bond Scheme and the amendments to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Companies Act, 2013 and the Income Tax Act, 1961 by the Finance Act, 2017, the voters are entitled to know the funding to the political parties by the Electoral Bond for the entire period,” it said.

While the SBI was directed to submit the details of the bonds purchased from April 12, 2019, to February 15, 2024, to the ECI by March 6, the bank moved the top court seeking an extension of time till June 30 to furnish the details. However, the Supreme Court trashed the plea and ordered it to disclose the details by the close of business hours on March 12.

The ECI was directed to publish the information shared by the bank on its official website by 5 pm on March 15. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Reporters’ Collective, a news website run by independent journalists, in its analyses of the electoral bonds data released by the Election Commission found companies and individuals donated crores of rupees to political parties under circumstances that would merit a detailed look.

According to The Reporters’ Collective, some of the companies and people who have donated in crores include a Kotak group company that donated using the same scheme that billionaire banker Uday Kotak had questioned; a company linked to YSR Congress Party MP Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy that donated over Rs 100 crore; a Reliance Industries accounts man, Laxmidas Vallabhdas Merchant, who is among the top 100 donors, and a Reliance Industries company called Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd, which was the third-largest donor.

The electoral bonds account for a lion’s share of political donations in the country. The Supreme Court ruled them illegal last month, saying the scheme violated the right of voters to know who was financing their representatives.

Around 11 per cent of the bonds issued between April 2019 and January 2024 was bought by a firm led by Santiago Martin, who is also known as the “Lottery King”. The data shows that his Future Gaming and Hotel Services was the single-biggest buyer of electoral bonds for the period.

The electoral bonds data, however, does not map electoral bond buyers to recipients, leaving it unclear which individual and corporate donors were funding which parties.

The Collective in a report said just before the general elections in April 2019, Mr Kotak asked the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about the opaque electoral bonds scheme. Seven months later, a privately-held company of the Kotak group, Infina Finance Pvt Ltd, bought electoral bonds worth Rs 60 crore, the Collective reported.

Mr Reddy, the YSR Congress Party MP, founded real estate and infrastructure development firm Ramky Group, whose official address Ramky Towers is also the office of construction firm Chennai Green Woods Pvt Ltd, the Collective reported. This construction firm donated Rs 105 crore. In July 2021, the income tax department reportedly raided the Ramky group over alleged tax evasion, and from the same financial year the company began donating to political parties through electoral bonds, the Collective reported.

Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd, a little-known company with a registered address at Navi Mumbai’s Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) and having links to Reliance Industries Ltd, was the third-largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds, news agency PTI reported. It bought Rs 410 crore of electoral bonds between financial years 2021-22 and 2023-24. A Reliance Industries spokesperson, however, said Qwik Supply Chain is not a subsidiary of any Reliance Industries’ entity, PTI reported.

A Reliance Industries employee, Laxmidas Vallabhdas Merchant, whose LinkedIn profile says he’s a Group Controller looking after tax compliance, is among the top 100 donors, the Collective reported. He donated Rs 25 crore through electoral bonds in November 2023. The now-scrapped electoral bonds scheme allowed individuals to donate to political parties without revealing their identities.

This allowed big companies to use unknown individuals and zero-revenue companies to donate on their behalf while keeping away from the glare of public scrutiny, the Collective reported.

New Delhi:

The State Bank of India on Tuesday evening submitted data about electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India, in line with a stern order from the Supreme Court. The data will be collated and released by the poll panel by 5 pm Friday, as the court had ordered. The bank’s Chairman and Managing Director, however, has not yet filed the affidavit confirming compliance with the court order.

The affidavit, NDTV has been told, is ready and will be submitted to the court Wednesday.

The Supreme Court on Monday nixed a plea by the State Bank of India – the country’s largest bank – to extend the March 6 deadline to release this data. A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud came down strongly on the bank for “willful disobedience” of orders, and warned it of contempt proceedings.

“While we are not inclined to exercise contempt jurisdiction at this time, we place SBI on notice that this court may be inclined to proceed against it for willful disobedience if it does not comply with directions by timelines indicated in this order,” the court had said.

READ | “Disclose Electoral Bonds’ Data By Tomorrow”: Court Junks SBI Plea

The bank argued it would take considerable time to collect, cross-check and release the data, which was stored in two “silos” to maintain confidentiality of both sides. “We need a little more time to comply. We were told this is supposed to be a secret,” the bank said, and asked for time till June 30.

READ | Matching Donor Details Takes Time, SBI Tells Supreme Court

That deadline is well past the completion of the 2024 general election.

In response the Supreme Court pointed out donor details were available at the SBI’s Mumbai branch, and the bank just had to “open covers, collate details and give information”. “We had not told you to do the matching exercise. We have asked you for a plain disclosure,” the Chief Justice rapped SBI.

Last month, in a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court held the electoral bond scheme to be “unconstitutional” and said it violated citizens’ right to information. The SBI had been directed to reveal data by March 6 and the poll panel to make this information public by March 13.

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