The Supreme Court last week ruled that the electoral bond system is unconstitutional because it violates people’s right to information and can lead to quid pro quo deals between political parties and donors, giving support to India’s opposition parties. It became the reason. They believe they now have the ammunition to target the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for corruption and defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies.na kaunga na kaung dungaThe opposition also said that the Supreme Court’s order to disclose the identity of donors to the State Bank of India (SBI), an authorized institution under the scheme, has led to accusations against the Bharatiya Janata Party of indulging in crony capitalism and carrying out the strike. I hope it will be strengthened. Some quid pro quo deals with companies.
In 2014, the BJP took corruption as a major issue and used the 2G and CWG scam and the controversial land deal made by Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra to attack the Congress-led UPA. did. Now, the Bharatiya Janata Party hopes that the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) action in several cases involving opposition parties will give momentum to the party’s “zero tolerance” policy and improve its poll prospects. are doing.
Opposition parties, on the other hand, claim that the Bharatiya Janata Party received most of its funding through corporations, giving it an unfair advantage during elections. However, the data shows this is not true. Figures compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) for 26 electoral bonds from March 2018 to April 2023 show that the Bharatiya Janata Party received half of the total amount of Rs. Donations amounted to 12,979 million yen, with the remaining half going to the Congress and other regional parties.
All parties come together in Moolah
As per ADR data, BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) are the top five parties to have received funds through electoral bonds till April 2022. It becomes. While some of these are part of the opposition India Bloc, the BJD is a non-aligned player and does not belong to either the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) or the India Bloc.
Notably, while opposition parties have been vocal critics of the electoral bond system over the years, an audit report released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows that the TMC, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (TMC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Parties like Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and DMK benefited from electoral bonds in FY23. Below are some diagrams.
- TMC received 99.4% of the total donations worth Rs 327 million from electoral bonds.
- More than 99 per cent of the DMK’s donations worth Rs 186 crore were also in the form of electoral bonds.
- In 2022-23, AAP received donations worth Rs 84 million, of which more than half (Rs 45 million) was provided through electoral bonds.
- Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD received 100% of its donations worth Rs 152 crore in the last financial year through electoral bonds.
some cold calculations
As of January 2024, the total donations received by each party since the launch of the scheme in March 2018 amounted to Rs 2 billion. 16,518 billion. In a sense, this covered his one period of one election cycle in the country, his one Lok Sabha election in 2019 and about 30 Vidhan Sabha elections. . This is a small percentage considering the total expenditure in a single Lok Sabha election (2019) is estimated at a whopping Rs 300 crore. According to the Media Research Center, 55,000 to 60,000 million. Considering that the number of Sabah seats in India is 543, this translates to about Rs 20 million. The average cost per seat is 10 billion yen. It is now a widely accepted fact that political parties and candidates typically spend far more than the ECI-prescribed limit of Rs 100 crore. 9.5 million for Lok Sabha polls.
Apart from this, it can be easily assumed that for around 30 Vidhan Sabha elections in a cycle, there will be an additional expenditure of Rs 100 crore. 55,000-60,000 billion. There are over 4,100 Vidhan Sabha seats across states in India, and each seat is contested by two to three strong candidates, spending an average of Rs 100 million. 5 billion each. Therefore, the expenditure for each seat in the Vidhan Sabha is expected to be around Rs 100 crore. 15 crs, so the total expenditure will be approximately Rs. 60,000 crore in the Vidhan Sabha polls.
Now, let’s compare this to the amount each political party revealed as spending in the 2019 election. According to the ECI website, about 32 national and regional parties collectively spent Rs 2,591 million in the 2019 general elections, of which Rs 2,040 million, or 77.4%, was spent by seven national parties. . That’s less than 5% of the total spent during the election, the Center for Media Research estimates.
Let’s take a look at how much money candidates have spent. ADR analyzed the election expenditure of 538 people elected to Parliament in 2019 and found that MPs spent Rs 538 in 2019. The average is 5.1 million yen. However, about 63% of this was funded by their respective political parties. This means that they spent an average of Rs. The 2 million yen will come from his own pocket and other sources. In that case, the total amount spent by the MPs would amount to Rs 200 million. 10 billion. This is also very insignificant.
cache rules
What this means is that cash is the main source of election financing in India. Electoral bonds (Rs 12,979 crore) are only 10% of the total amount spent by political parties and candidates of around Rs 120,000 crore over the five-year election cycle.
Now that the electoral bonds are gone, it is likely that the same amount will be returned through the cash route. Banning electoral bonds does not reduce the influence of black money on the electoral process. Campaign bonds helped non-cash-generating businesses, such as those in the service industry, participate in campaign financing through legal (“white”) channels. That option is already closed to them.
One of the arguments of petitioners and activists opposed to electoral bonds is that the ban would end quid pro quo agreements between political parties and corporations. However, the amount actually received through electoral bonds is minimal and cash is the mainstay, so even if there is a reward, it is unlikely to be affected by this order.
In conclusion, all political parties benefited from the electoral bond mechanism, with the BJP benefiting the most as it is in power at the Center and holds the reins of alliances either alone or in 18 states. Regionally strong parties like BJD, TMC, DMK and AAP are also major beneficiaries but are now trying to milk the SC order with electoral bonds for political rhetoric. That may or may not work in their favor.
(Amitabh Tiwari is a political strategist and commentator. In his previous avatar, he was a corporate and investment banker.)
Disclaimer: These are the author’s personal opinions.