Lok Sabha elections are going to be held in 2024. Just two months before the elections, the Supreme Court has banned the Electoral Bond Scheme, declaring it unconstitutional. But do you know how the party takes donations from any organization or company. After all, how much donation can a party take in cash? Today we will answer all these questions.
What is Electoral Bond?
Let us tell you that the Government of India has announced the Electoral Bond Scheme in 2017. I did. After this it was legally implemented on 29 January 2018. In simple language, electoral bond is a financial means of donating to political parties. Any citizen or company of India can buy this bond from selected branches of State Bank of India and donate it anonymously to any political party of his choice.
How much in cash? Donations
All political parties take donations. Parties collect donations from institutions and companies in different ways. According to the information, no political party can take donations in cash more than Rs 20 crore. Not only this, details of cash donations more than Rs 2000 will also have to be shared with the Commission. According to Section 29c of the Indian Representation of the People Act 1951, it is mandatory for the parties to give all the information to the Commission if they receive cash donation from any person or organization.
Who received how much donation from electoral bonds?< /strong>
According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), between the financial year 2017 and 2021, a total donation of about Rs 9 thousand 188 crore has been received by political parties through electoral bonds. This donation has come from 7 national parties and 24 regional parties. In these five years, BJP has received Rs 5,272 crore from electoral bonds, while Congress party has received Rs 952 crore. Apart from this, donations received by 29 political parties were included in the amount of Rs 3 thousand crore. In which TMC has received about Rs 768 crore from electoral bonds in these five years. Apart from these three, the share of donations of parties like BJD, DMK, NCP, AAP, JDU has been in the top 10.
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