BJP got 8 times of Congress' income from electoral bonds in 2019-20; complete EC data here

BJP, which rules at the Centre, garnered a lion's share of the electoral bonds sold in the financial year 2019-20, as per the data from the Election Commission of India. The annual audit reports submitted by the national as well as state parties indicate that electoral bonds worth over Rs.3000 crore were sold in 2019-20 out of which BJP's income was Rs.2555 crore. This is a whopping 76% rise from 2018-19 where the saffron party got Rs.1450 crore. 

On the other hand, its archrival Congress' income from electoral bonds dropped by 17% from Rs.383.26 crore in 2018-19 to Rs.317.86 crore in 2019-20. Thus, BJP has got nearly 8 times more money from electoral bonds than the Sonia Gandhi-led party in 2019-20. AAP which was re-elected in Delhi last year obtained a total of Rs.17.76 crore from electoral bonds and electoral trusts in 2019-20 as compared to Rs.1.18 crore in 2018-19. Reportedly, electoral bonds worth more than Rs.7300 crore have been sold to date. 

Here are the contributions via electoral bonds: 

What is the electoral bond scheme?

Notified by the Centre on January 2, 2018, this scheme entails the usage of electoral bonds which are interest-free bearer instruments used to donate money anonymously to political parties. Electoral bonds are issued in multiples of Rs.1,000, Rs.10,000 and Rs.1 crore by select State Bank of India (SBI) branches through a KYC-compliant account. Congress has launched a sustained attack against this scheme alleging that it was a ploy to transfer "black money to the BJP coffers”. Leaders such as Manish Tewari and Rahul Gandhi stepped up their criticism after some media reports claimed that the government had overruled the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to introduce this scheme. 

SC refuses interim stay

Recently, the ADR filed a plea seeking a direction to put the sale of electoral bonds scheduled between April 1-10 on hold. During the hearing, the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising the then CJI SA Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian expressed concern over the possibility of political parties misusing money received through electoral bonds to fuel violent protests or terrorism. Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted that only registered parties who have not secured less than 1% of votes in the previous election are eligible to receive donations through electoral bonds. 

Arguing for ADR, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan stated that this scheme introduces anonymity in political donations at many levels. Alleging that the scheme opens the door for direct bribery, he stressed that the electorate deserves to know the source of funds and antecedents of candidates. When the CJI pointed out that donations can be given to opposition parties too, Bhushan retorted that the government would know if money is given to other parties. Refusing to grant any relief to the petitioner, the bench held that there are sufficient safeguards in the scheme as the electoral bonds were permitted in 2018 and 2019 without interruption.