DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES SC HEARS SBI RESPONSE TODAY ON REVEALING UNIQUE BOND NUMBERS Fresh data out: Payments before 2019 polls; DMK, ADMK, JD(S), NCP among 10 parties who reveal donors BJP tells EC not bound by law to keep donor records so doesn’t have details; Cong says has told SBI to share with EC AAP names its donors till May 2019, Bajaj Group top of list MALLICAJOSHI NEWDELHI,MARCH17 BETWEEN APRIL 2018 and May 2019,theAamAadmiParty(AAP) gotRs5.75crorethroughelectoral bonds—fromfivecompaniesand two individuals. Of this, the Bajaj Group accountedforRs3crore,creditedon April 10, 2019, becoming the party's biggest poll bond donor aheadofLokSabhapollsthatyear. The AAP was among the partieswhichdisclosedthenamesof donors in the latest data released by the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday. Accordingtothedata,theAAP gotRs69.06crorethrough bonds betweenApril2018andJuly2023. The party disclosed the donors only for the period till May 2019. In this period, the second highest electoral bond donor was Gujarat-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited and Pune-basedBGShirkeConstruction Technology Pvt Ltd, both of which donated Rs 1 crore each CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 IT MAY not be clear how the regional parties know the IDs of their donors but the fact that 10 of them have voluntarily revealed their names strengthens the case for SBI to disclose the bond numbers so that the donor can be matched with the party. INC 2,390.91 INC `1,950.90 cr `8,451.41 cr Trinamool Congress `1,707.81cr Bharat Rashtra Samithi All figures in ` cr `1,407.30cr Biju Janata Dal 529 YSRCP `1,010.50 cr 165.8 BRS BJD 192.6 235 Data compiled by: Shijith P Kunhitty, Harikishan Sharma, Lalmani Verma & Shyamlal Yadav CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Mar ’18 Jul ’18 Oct Nov ’18 ’18 ARUN JANARDHANAN & DEEPTIMAN TIWARY Apr May Jan Mar ’18 ’18 ’19 ’19 Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha as well. The geography of the branches from where these bonds were issued, shows that BJP got money from across the country with major contributions from Mumbai (Rs 1493.21 crore),Kolkata(Rs1068.91crore) and New Delhi (666.08 crore). In November-December 2018, there were Assembly polls in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, DMK’S DONOR LIST THE BIGGEST purchaser of electoral bonds, lottery company Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd, which bought bonds worth over Rs 1,300 crore between 2019 and 2024, donatedalmost40%of itstotalpurchases to the DMK. Future Gaming and Hotel Services Donor Mega Infrastructure India Cements Sun TV Network Ltd Triveni Amount 509 105 14 10 8 (IN ` CRORE) Donor Amount 5 IRB Infrastructure 2 Ramco Cements Developers Lakshmi Machine Works Birla 1.5 1 1 Apollo Compiled by: Shijith P Kunhitty Over half of JD(S) electoral bond donations came from Megha Engg BENGALURU, NEW DELHI, MARCH 17 JANATADAL(Secular),whichwas among the parties to have disclosed the identity of their electoralbonddonors,receivedmore thanhalfofitstotalRs89.75-crore donations from Hyderabadbased Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL). A vandalised room at a Gujarat University hostel in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Nirmal Harindran The police have registered a caseunderIPCprovisionsrelating tounlawfulassembly,rioting,voluntarily causing hurt and criminaltrespass.Thetwoarrestedpersons have been identified as Hitesh Mevada and Bharat Patel, both residents of Ahmedabad. As videos of the incident started circulating on social media, showing some people vandalising the hostel rooms and damaging vehicles, Ahmedabad According to the details submitted to the Election Commission of India by H D Deve Gowda, national president of the JD(S), electoral bond donations from MEIL amounted to Rs 50 crore – nearly 56 per cent of total received by the party. Run by Krishna Reddy, MEIL is involved in marquee projects of the Telangana government such as the Kaleswaram Dam project. In total, the company and its subsidiaries have spent more than Rs 1,200 crore on electoral bonds between April 2019andNovember2023,asper data released by the Election Commission. This makes it the second-largest purchaser of electoral bonds. In October 2019, the Income Tax department raided the offices of the company. Following this,aprobewasalsoinitiatedby theEnforcementDirectorate.On April 12 that year alone, MEIL CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 strength in Andhra: ‘NDA will cross 400’ HYDERABAD, MARCH 17 Apr May ’19 ’19 Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana,Mizoram.BJPhadlost MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and returned to the government in Bhopal after a defection in Congress. Bonds redeemed during months of October and November2018showedthatBJP received Rs 330.41 crore in total. The next tranche was opened in January 2019 and the party CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Future Gaming, Bond Buyer No. 1, was DMK’s biggest donor at `509 crore AKRAM M & DEEPTIMAN TIWARY FIVE FOREIGN students of Gujarat University were injured, including two who had to be hospitalised, when a group of 20-25 people barged into their hostelandassaultedthemforoffering namaz during Ramzan in the hostel building Saturday night.Two of theassailantswere arrested Sunday, police said, adding that an FIR has been lodged and investigations were on to identify the rest. According to the police, the twoforeign students who hadto be hospitalised are from Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan. While one of them is still in hospital, the other has been discharged, they said. Of the other students who sustained injuries, two are from African nations and one from Afghanistan. SREENIVAS JANYALA 769.48 173 70.35 1,572.93 Allfiguresin`crore 94.15 THAT the BJP is the No. 1 recipient of poll bonds is a trend that was established since the inception of the scheme. Indeed, the ruling BJP redeemed over Rs 3941.57 crore between March 2018 to May 22, 2019, according to a fresh set of data released by the Election Commission today. And 77.4% of this (Rs 3050.11 crore) flowed into the party’s coffers in the March, April and May 2019, the three months in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls. The Lok Sabha polls 2019 were announced on March 10 that year and counting of votes was done on May 23. In all, the BJP has redeemed at least Rs 8451.41 crore since launch of the scheme. Along with Lok Sabha polls, there were Assembly polls for 113.20 NEW DELHI, MARCH 17 707.70 BJP’S POLL BOND REDEMPTIONS SHYAMLAL YADAV LOTTERY COMPANY GAVE 40% OF ITS TOTAL BONDS TO DMK CHENNAI, NEW DELHI, MAR 17 Gujarat govt taking strict action: MEA 3 months before 2019 polls, BJP got over `3K cr, 77% of its year’s count PM, Naidu show of 217.21 total purchases—exceeding Rs 1,300 crore—from 2019 to 2024 totheDMK,thereigningpartyin Tamil Nadu. Similarly, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL), the second-largest purchaser of bonds of almost Rs 1,000 crore, gave away Rs 50 crore to the JD(S) in Karnataka. Narayana Murthy-led Infosys donated Rs 1 crore to JD(S) two months before the 2018 Karnataka elections. JKNC received Rs 50 lakh from Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Airtel in 2019. The Bajaj Group donated Rs 3 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party, becoming its biggest donor via electoral bonds, days before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Bharti Airtel Ltd and Serum Institute's Cyrus Poonawala donated to NCP during 2018-19. Meanwhile, some of the largest political parties, such as the BJP, Congress, and TMC, among others, have refrained from disclosing any information about their donors. Notably, the BJP, in its submission to the ECI on November 15, 2023, stated that it is not Mob targets foreign students in Gujarat University hostel during namaz, five injured AHMEDABAD, MARCH 17 FUNDINGBEFORE APRIL12,2019 BJP Bharatiya Janata Party TWO ASSAILANTS ARRESTED EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE CUMULATIVEFUNDING,UPTOFEBRUARY15,2024 13.50 ADAYbefore theSupremeCourt hearstheStateBankof India'sresponse regarding its failure to disclose the unique alphanumeric code for each electoral bond purchased and redeemed, theElectionCommissionof India (ECI) released a fresh set of data on Sunday that further bolsters the demand for matching electoral bond donors to political parties, with as many as 10 regional parties voluntarily disclosing the names of their contributors. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK); All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK);JanataDal (Secular); Nationalist Congress Party (NCP); Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC); Janata Dal United (JDU); Aam Aadmi Party (AAP); Samajwadi Party; Sikkim Democratic Front; and a Goa party, the Maharashtra Gomantak Party, have revealed names of donors who contributed via electoral bonds between March 2018 and April 2019. Although this isn't unprecedented — Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had voluntarily disclosed Rs 1 crore donation from Hindalco Industries Limited through an electoral bond in 2019-20 — the second instalment of information pertaining to electoral bonds revealed by ECI is crucial as it is the biggest disclosure of details (although partial) to date on which donor exactly donated to which party. For example, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd ,run by Santiago Martin, the largest contributor through electoral bonds,allocatednearly40%of its E Case to reveal gets ● stronger WHAT THE PARTIES RECEIVED (TOP 5) 210 NEW DELHI, MARCH 17 E X P L A I NE D RITU SARIN & RITIKA CHOPRA `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 The DMK, currently the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, was amongthepartieswhichnamed itspollbonddonors,accordingto the latest data put out by the EC onSunday.Accordingtothedata, the party received a total of Rs 656.5 crore via poll bonds from April 19 2019 till November 14, 2023. This included Rs 509 crore from Future Gaming, run by Santiago Martin, between April NEARLY A decade after they first shared the stage on April 30, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu and JanaSena Party (JSP) chief K Pawan Kalyan came together for a public meeting at Chilakaluripeta, in Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh, on Sunday. The NDA rally, “Prajagalam”, turnedintoamassiveshowofstrength by the three parties, which joinedforcesearlierthismonthfor theLokSabhaandAssemblyelections in Andhra Pradesh. Addressing the crowd in Hindi, with Andhra BJP chief DaggubatiPurandeshwaritranslating his speech into Telugu, Modi said: “The NDA keeps regional aspirations as well as na- tional progress in mind. Naidu and Pawan Kalyan are working hardheretobringinadouble-engine growth government which will hasten development in the state. With TDP joining the NDA, wehavebecomemorestronger.’’ “We are going into this electionwithtwoobjectives–tobring the NDA back in power in New Delhi,andtobringdownthestate government here. YSRCP leaders arecompetingwitheachotherin corruption.Therehasbeennodevelopmentinthisstateinthelast five years,’’ he said. The YSRCP and Congress are not separate parties, they are working together to help each other, Modi said. “In NDA, we carry all along; but the Congress has only one agenda -- to use and throw its allies. Today, the Congress may have formed the INDI alliance, but its thinking CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Police Commissioner G S Malik and Gujarat University Vice ChancellorNeerjaGuptareached the hostel Sunday morning. Malik told reporters that around10.30pmSaturday,when some foreign students were offering namaz, 20-25 people enteredtheuniversity'sBlockAhostel building and asked why they were offering prayers there and told them to do so at a mosque. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY ‘I started weeping, locked myself in my room, wanted to quit cricket… Then I sought external help’ R ASHWIN INDIAN CRICKETER PAGE 14 Opp raises poll bonds, EVMs to target PM as Rahul yatra ends CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE 10 REGIONAL PARTIES ENCASHED EBS WORTH `900 CR TILL APRIL 12, 2019 CONGRESS SAW SHARP SURGE IN DONATIONS AHEAD OF 2019 LS POLLS NAMED ACCUSED IN MAHADEV APP CASE, BAGHEL SAYS IT’S POLITICAL RETRIBUTION PAGES 6, 13 The INDIA rally in Mumbai on Sunday. Amit Chakravarty ALOK DESHPANDE MUMBAI, MARCH 17 FROMUPLIFTofbackwardclasses to increased vigilance in the use ofEVMs,leadersoftheopposition INDIAblocsettheagendaasthey sounded the bugle for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections at Mumbai's Shivaji Park ground Sunday. The show of strength, during which the opposition leaders targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, also marked the culmination of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Addressing the mega rally, Gandhi termed the electoral bond scheme as the national version of road side “Hafta Vasooli” or extortion. “Today Narendra Modi has the monopoly over corruption. Electoralbondisnothingbutna- tional Hafta Vasooli. They give contract and take percentage. Second, they threaten. Third, they use shell companies and, fourth, contract in terms of money.Mumbaiairportisanexample of it. The CBI probe was initiated and then Adani was given the airport,” the Congress MP said. “Everybody thinks that we are fighting against a political CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad