Electoral Funding

Republican former President Donald Trump 's campaign and its related affiliates announced that they had raised USD 138.7 million last month less than what his new opponent in November's election, Vice President Kamala Harris, took in during her White House bid's opening week. Trump's campaign says it has USD 327 million in cash on hand heading into August, with the election now just a bit more than three months away. Harris' campaign has yet to announce its July fundraising totals or say how much it has in campaign funds, but it says the vice president's entry into the race has sparked a wave of new donations and volunteers. The former president's campaign, the Republican National Committee and other entities previously announced raising USD 331 million in the three-month period that ended in June meaning their July totals were above that pace. They may have been helped by Trump surviving an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, which galvanised some of

The review petition filed by Arun Kumar Agarwal contended that there are mistakes and errors apparent in the April 26 judgment

Modi said the next govt will share these drafts with the states, and invite their inputs, which he hopes to discuss threadbare with the CMs at a NITI Aayog meeting to be called after Lok Sabha polls

The State Bank of India (SBI) has refused to disclose under the RTI Act the details of the electoral bonds furnished to the Election Commission (EC), claiming that it is personal information held in a fiduciary capacity, even though the records are in the public domain on the poll panel's website. Holding that the electoral bonds scheme was "unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary", the Supreme Court directed the SBI on February 15 to furnish the complete details of the bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 to the EC, which would publish the information on its website by March 13. On March 11, the court dismissed the SBI's petition seeking an extension of the deadline and ordered it to disclose the details of the electoral bonds to the EC by the close of business hours on March 12. RTI activist Commodore (retired) Lokesh Batra approached the SBI on March 13 seeking the complete data of the electoral bonds in the digital form, as provided to the EC after the Supreme Court's order.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday denied any link between the functioning of investigative agencies, including ED raids, and electoral funding to the ruling party, saying these allegations are just assumptions. "What if the companies gave the money, and after that, we still went and knocked at their doors through ED (Enforcement Directorate). Is that a probability or not...It is an assumption that the ED went and knocked at their doors, and to save themselves they came up with funds. The second assumption is that are you sure that they have given (electoral bonds) to BJP. What if they probably gave to regional parties," she said while speaking at India Today Conclave. The finance minister's comments came a day after the Election Commission of India published a list of subscribers of the electoral bonds and funds mobilised by various political parties. The list provided by State Bank of India, the issuer of electoral bonds, was published after the order of the Supreme ...

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of corruption amid the ongoing row over electoral bonds data shared by the SBI

The BJP received the largest share of donations, totaling more than Rs 6,000 crore

Orders EC to disclose donors, amount & recipients by March 13

In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court on Thursday annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information. But what exactly are electoral bonds? An electoral Bond is a financial instrument for making donations to political parties as has been first pronounced by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2017-18. According to the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018, an electoral bond is a bond issued in the nature of a promissory note, which shall be bearer in character. A bearer instrument is one which does not carry the name of the buyer or payee, no ownership information is recorded and the holder of the instrument (i.e. political party) is presumed to be its owner, explains Association for Democratic Reforms. The scheme allows individuals -- who are citizens of India -- and domestic companies to donate these bonds issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 la

Welcoming the Supreme Court judgment striking down electoral bonds, the CPI(M) on Thursday said it was an "unscrupulous scheme designed to help the ruling party" and it was now essential to introduce reforms for political and electoral funding. In a widely anticipated judgement ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information. "The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) hails the historic judgment of the Supreme Court, which has struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional. By this verdict, this unscrupulous scheme designed to finance the ruling party by anonymous corporate donors has been completely scrapped," the CPI(M) said in a statement. The party had declared at the outset itself that it will not accept electoral bonds as this scheme legalizes corruption, the statement read, adding that the CPI(M) ha

Tamil Nadu has an electorate strength of 6,18,90,348 with women voters outnumbering men as per the integrated final electoral roll of the special summary revision, 2024, released on Monday here. The final published electoral roll had reference to January 1, 2024 as the qualifying date, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo said. Of the total electorate, male voters are 3,03,96,330, female voters constitute 3,14,85,724 and the third gender 8,294. The Shozhinganallur Assembly constituency in Chengalpattu district has the highest number of electors with 6,60,419 (male 3,30,522, female 3,29,783, third gender 114), followed by Kavundampalayam Assembly constituency in Coimbatore district which has 4,62,612 electors (male 2,29,950, female 2,32,538, third gender 124). The Kilvelur Assembly constituency in Nagapattinam district with 1,72,140 electors (male 84,702, female 87,435, third gender: 3) has the least number of voters followed by Harbour Assembly constituency in Chennai ...

The BJP received a total of Rs 256.25 crore from Prudent Electoral Trust, while the BRS received Rs 90 crore and the YSRCP Rs 16 crore from the fund during the financial year that ended in March 2023. The trust gave total donations of Rs 363.15 crore to political parties during the year, according to its filing before the Election Commission (EC). The data shared by the trust reveals that while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received 70.56 per cent of the donations made by it during the past year, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received a total of Rs 90 lakh from the fund in two tranches of Rs 45 lakh each. The contributions made by the trust to the BJP were in 17 tranches. The trust made three contributions to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), totalling Rs 90 crore. The maximum contribution of Rs 75 crore was made in one tranch to the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party while another of Rs 10 crore and yet another of Rs 5 crore were given to the ruling party in Telangana. The YSRCP, which

Here are a few ways through which you can check for your name on the electoral list before you head out to vote

With the long-frozen hearing on the challenge to the Modi government's anonymous electoral bonds finally listed by the Supreme Court, India will see one last opportunity to fix the system

Delhi-based Swadeshi Electoral Trust and Jaybharath Electoral Trust registered in Coimbatore have told the Election Commission that they neither received any contribution nor made any donation to a political party in financial year 2021-22. In their annual reports for FY 2021-22 submitted to the poll panel, the two trusts said they received "nil" contributions from all sources permissible under the income tax law. Hence they made "nil" donations to any political party in the fiscal. Electoral trusts have to submit their contribution reports to the EC containing details of contributions received and disbursed by them to political parties in the interest of transparency.

The Election Commission has not shared any electoral roll data with the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Bhushan, appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms, said the scheme needed to be stayed as it had become akin for accepting bribe, money laundering and channelisation of black money

The party received Rs 80.45 crore as donations in the state between 2011-12 and 2015-16

The founder-member of ADR says electoral bonds reduce transparency in political funding

70% of political funding is from unknown sources; no ceiling on expenditure of political parties