DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 14 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 Received bonds worth Rs 10 cr from unidentified donor through post: SP to EC LALMANI VERMA NEW DELHI, MARCH 17 AT THE peak of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP) redeemed electoral bonds worth Rs 10.84 crore. According to the details shared by the Election Commission, the party had received bonds worth Rs 10 crore (92 per cent of total amount)viapostfromunknown donors. SP secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav had shared this information with the Election Commission through a letter dated May 30, 2019. In the disclosure to the ElectionCommission,theSPsaid that it received electoral bonds from S K Traders, Gurgaon (7 bonds of Rs 1 lakh each); San Beverages Pvt Ltd (three bonds of Rs 10 lakh each); S K Trading Co,Delhi(onebondof Rs1lakh); A K traders, Delhi (one bonds of Rs 10 lakh); K S Traders, Mohannagar (one bond of Rs 10 lakh); B S Traders, Jaipur (seven bonds of Rs 1 lakh each); A S Traders, Delhi (five bonds of Rs 1 lakh each); B G Traders, Faridabad (five bonds of Rs 1 lakh each). CONTINUEDONPAGE2 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 `8,451.41 cr `1,707.81cr Bharat Rashtra Samithi 529 All figures in ` cr `1,407.30cr A vandalised room at a Gujarat University hostel in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Nirmal Harindran Biju Janata Dal YSRCP `1,010.50 cr 165.8 BRS BJD 192.6 235 Data compiled by: Shijith P Kunhitty, Harikishan Sharma, Lalmani Verma & Shyamlal Yadav BJP’S POLL BOND REDEMPTIONS Mar ’18 Jul ’18 1,572.93 Allfiguresin`crore Oct Nov ’18 ’18 769.48 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. 173 NEW DELHI, MARCH 17 70.35 SHYAMLAL YADAV Apr May Jan Mar ’18 ’18 ’19 ’19 The Lok Sabha polls 2019 were announced on March 10 that year and counting of votes was done on May 23. 707.70 3 months before 2019 polls, BJP got over `3K cr, 77% of its year’s count 94.15 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 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 `1,950.90 cr Trinamool Congress 113.20 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 Apr May ’19 ’19 In all, the BJP has redeemed at least Rs 8451.41 crore since launch of the scheme. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 LOTTERY COMPANY GAVE 40% OF ITS TOTAL BONDS TO DMK Future Gaming, Bond Buyer No. 1, was DMK’s biggest donor at `509 crore ARUNJANARDHANAN &DEEPTIMANTIWARY CHENNAI,NEWDELHI,MAR17 THE BIGGEST purchaser of electoral bonds, lottery company FutureGamingandHotelServices Pvt Ltd, which bought bonds worthoverRs1,300crorebetween 2019 and 2024, donated almost 40% of its total purchases to the DMK. TheDMK,currentlytheruling party in Tamil Nadu, was among the parties which named its poll bonddonors,accordingtothelatest data put out by the EC on Sunday.Accordingtothedata,the party received a total of Rs 656.5 crore via poll bonds from April 19 DMK’S DONOR LIST Donor Future Gaming and Hotel Services Mega Infrastructure India Cements Sun TV Network Ltd Triveni (IN ` CRORE) Amount 509 105 14 10 8 2019 till November 14, 2023. This includedRs509crorefromFuture Gaming, run by Santiago Martin, between April 2019 and April 2023. The DMK received its first tranche of electoral bonds (worth Donor Amount Ramco Cements 5 IRB Infrastructure 2 Developers Lakshmi Machine Works Birla Apollo 1.5 1 1 Rs60crore)fromFutureGamingin 2020-21. In 2021-22, the amount increasedtoRs249crore. The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections were held in April 2021, when the DMK ousted the then AIADMKgovernment. Over half of JD(S) electoral bond donations came from Megha Engg AKRAM M & DEEPTIMAN TIWARY BENGALURU, NEW DELHI, MARCH 17 JANATA DAL (Secular), which was among the parties to have disclosed the identity of their electoral bond donors, received more than half of its total Rs 89.75-crore donations from CONTINUEDONPAGE2 ISRAEL TO CONTINUE ASSAULT, TRUCE TALKS TO RESUME UKRAINIAN DRONES STRIKE RUSSIA ON LAST POLL DAY P 10 INC 2,390.91 Bharatiya Janata Party BY UNNY Gujarat govt taking strict action: MEA FUNDINGBEFORE APRIL12,2019 BJP 217.21 ADAYbefore the SupremeCourt 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 E Case to reveal gets ● stronger Mob targets foreign students in Gujarat Univ hostel during namaz, 5 injured BUSINESS AS USUAL THE WORLD CUMULATIVEFUNDING,UPTOFEBRUARY15,2024 13.50 NEW DELHI, MARCH 17 E X P L A I NE D RITU SARIN & RITIKA CHOPRA TWO ASSAILANTS ARRESTED WHAT THE PARTIES RECEIVED (TOP 5) 210 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 `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 JD(S) DONOR LIST Amount Megha Engineering 50 & Constructions JSW Steel Shankaranarayana Constructions BICON Ltd CONTINUEDONPAGE2 UTTAR PRADESH (IN ` CRORE) Donor Embassy Group In2022-23,theDMKreceived another Rs 160 crore via poll bonds from Future Gaming. The remaining amount was donated on April 1, 2023. According to the overall yearwisedata,theDMKreceivedcontributions totalling Rs 45.50 crore in2019-2020,coincidingwiththe May 2019 general elections. The major donors included India Cements at Rs 10 crore, Lakshmi MachineWorks(LMW)atRs1.50 crore, RAMCO Cements at Rs 5 crore,MegaInfrastructureatRs20 crore, Apollo at Rs 1 crore, Triveni atRs5crore,BirlaatRs1crore,and IRBatRs2crore. In 2020-2021, the DMK saw contributionstotalingRs80crore. 22 5 5 2.5 Donor Amount Amar Raj Groups 2 Shahi Exports 1.5 Infosys Technologies 1 Aditya Birla Group 0.5 Health Care Global 0.25 Enterprises Compiled by: Shijith P Kunhitty ACTION PLAN SENT TO OFFICIALS TO ENSURE POLL CODE IMPLEMENTATION P3 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AHMEDABAD, MARCH 17 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 twoforeignstudents 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. The police have registered a case under IPC provisions relating to unlawful assembly, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal trespass. The two arrested persons 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 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘I started weeping, locked myself in my room, wanted to quit cricket… Then I sought external help’ R ASHWIN INDIAN CRICKETER PAGE 12 PM, Naidu show of strength in Andhra: ‘NDA will cross 400’ SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, MARCH 17 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”, turned into a massive show of strength by the three parties, which joined forces earlier this month for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Prime Minister Narendra Modi with TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and JanaSena chief Pawan Kalyan in Andhra’s Palnadu district on Sunday. PTI Andhra Pradesh. Addressing the crowd in Hindi, with Andhra BJP chief DaggubatiPurandeshwaritrans- lating his speech into Telugu, Modi said: “The NDA keeps regional aspirations as well as CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Opp raises poll bonds, EVMs to target PM as Rahul yatra ends 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. Electoral bondisnothingbutna- The INDIA rally in Mumbai on Sunday. Amit Chakravarty 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 party or against an individual called Narendra Modi. No it is not.Heisjustaface.Wearefighting against a particular power. That power which is in EVMs and in institutions... which is robbing you of your money and NarendraModi'sjobistodistract your attention from that,” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow