Three days before the apex court struck down the electoral bonds scheme, the Finance Ministry had approved the printing of the bonds
Lottery firm Future Gaming and Megha Infrastructure were the biggest purchasers of the electoral bonds scheme, while BJP and TMC were the largest beneficiaries
The ruling party received Rs 6,060 crore in electoral bonds, constituting 47% of the total donations, followed by TMC Rs 1,609.50 crore (12.6%) and Congress Rs 1,421.9 crore (11.1%)
Top electoral bonds doors: Everything you need to know about Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd and its subsidiaries that made up the second largest electoral bond donor
Future Gaming emerged as the top electoral bond donor, donating Rs 1,368 crore to political parties between April 2019 and January 2024, in data released by the Election Commission
Ten corporates donated Rs 332.26 crore, or 90.66% of total donations
Earlier in December, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge launched the crowdfunding campaign 'Donate for Desh' for the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday alleged that the BJP alone takes donations for elections and harasses industrialists who want to donate to Congress. Gehlot also accused the BJP-ruled government at the Centre of misusing central agencies like Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax department and the CBI. "BJP alone takes donations in elections and is not letting others take donations. They harass industrialists who want to donate to Congress," the Chief Minister said addressing a public meeting after visiting an inflation relief camp in Dungarpur. Highlighting the schemes and programmes of his government, Gehlot said that none of the state government schemes were launched with elections in mind. He also requested people to vote for the Congress party in the upcoming Assembly elections so that it can retain power in the state. Gehlot also reiterated his demand for a law on right to social security to be passed at the central government level.
Aiming for reforms and transparency in donations received by political parties, the Election Commission has proposed reducing anonymous political donations from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000
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 total income of 25 regional political parties in FY20 was Rs 803.24 crore
National parties collected Rs 3,377.41 crore from unknown sources in the 2019-20 financial year, which was 70.98% of the total income of these parties, according to Association for Democratic Reforms
The money donated during the month was less than one-tenth the roughly $190,000 the 10 company PACs gave candidates in January 2017
Many companies have since said they will avoid making donations to members of the House and Senate who voted to overturn Biden's win
CIC rejected a plea for making the details public
Donations for the BJP increased from Rs 437.04 crore during 2017-18 to Rs 742.15 crore during 2018-19, a rise of 70 per cent, the ADR said
In a letter to party leaders, BJP has asked them to hold programmes on the life of Upadhaya at booth level
In case a political party receives a political donation in cash primarily, then that might actually indicate a scam, he stated
Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala cited a media report which claimed the BJP took a large donation from a firm being probed by the Enforcement Directorate
The AAP's total funds rose from Rs 6.06 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 10.11 crore in 2018-19, the report said