India’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional. According to the data of the Election Commission, 97.49 percent of the income of the Trinamool in this financial year in 2022-23 came from electoral bonds. As a percentage which is the highest among the political parties in the country.
Electoral bonds have been in operation in the country for the past six years. More than half of the money raised after the launch of these bonds went to the ruling BJP at the Centre. According to information provided to the Election Commission, the BJP received Rs 6,565 crore through bonds between 2017 and 2023. On the other hand, the second-placed Congress got Rs. 1,233 crores. And in the third place Trinamool received 1 thousand 93 crore rupees.
According to the data provided to the Election Commission in 2022-23, the BJP’s income from electoral bonds (54.82 per cent) in that year was over Rs 1,294 crore. Congress’ income (37.80 percent) of over 171 crores came from electoral bonds. And 97.49 percent of Trinamool’s income in that financial year came from electoral bonds. Their total income in that year is shown to be more than 333 crore 45 lakh rupees. Out of this, more than 325 crores came from electoral bonds. This rate is the highest among political parties in the country.
According to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) data, as per the annual audited accounts in the last 5 years, the Trinamool received nothing through electoral bonds in the first year 2017-18, then Rs 97 crore in 2018-19. 100 crores in 2019-20, 42 crores in 2020-21, 528 crores in 2021-22.
According to the data published by the same organization on Thursday, it received Rs 325 crore in 2022-23 through electoral bonds.
The Election Commission is yet to publish the annual reports of the parties for 2023-24. However, the available statistics show that between March 2018 and January 2024, a total of Rs 16,518 crore has been deposited in the election bond fund.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional. A constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ordered the State Bank of India to stop issuing electoral bonds. Besides, it was also directed to submit the detailed account of electoral bonds purchased from April 12, 2019 till now.
Any person, organization or company can donate to any political party in the country through electoral bonds or electoral bonds. These elective bonds are available in the market at various prices. There is an opportunity to buy it from certain branches of State Bank. There is an opportunity to buy Electoral Bonds of minimum Rs.1000, Rs.10000, Rs.1 lakh, Rs.10 lakh and Rs.1 crore. The identity of the person or persons buying these bonds is to be kept completely confidential.
This bond was introduced in 2017, but has been in use since 2018. If a party receives this bond, it can be redeemed within 15 days. When these bonds can be bought is specified. For example, there is an opportunity to buy these bonds between 1st and 10th of January, April, July and October. Not only this, the government is given an additional 30 days to buy these bonds in the year when there are Lok Sabha elections. According to Section 29 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, only political parties registered by the Election Commission will get the benefit of electoral bonds. Many opposition parties welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict. Trinamool is also in that list. Party MP Saket Gokhale said, ‘The most historic judgment of the Supreme Court in the last five years.’ West Bengal’s BJP leader Subvendu Adhikari said, ‘Trinamool will have to return thousands of crores of rupees after the Supreme Court’s verdict. The Supreme Court canceled the election bond and asked for refund. 1000 crores are in Trinamool’s account. That money must be returned. Earlier, Trinamool’s income in electoral bonds was Rs 856 crore. It has now increased to thousands of crores.
On the other hand, according to the data published by ADR, there has been a significant increase in Trinamool’s assets in the financial year 2021-22. That growth rate is 151.70 percent. According to the ADR report, Trinamool received Tk 17 crore from the declared fiscal year 2021-22. There Trinamool received Rs 528.093 crore from an unknown source. That is, 96.77 percent of the total amount of money received by Trinamool came from unknown sources. Which is the highest rate among national teams in the 2021-22 financial year. Congress was second among the national parties in the list of highest income from undisclosed sources in percentage terms. In the financial year 2021-22, where the Congress received a total of Rs 541.275 crore, Rs 388.8397 crore came from undisclosed sources alone. In other words, 71.84 percent of the money received by the Congress is from unknown sources. BJP was ranked third in this list of national parties. In the financial year 2021-22, the total came to 1 thousand 917.12 crore rupees. Of this, the party received Rs 1,161.0484 crore from unknown sources. Which is much more than the rest of the national parties in terms of numbers, but in terms of percentage BJP was number three.
