Lok Sabha Election 2024: Will electoral bonds data unite the beleaguered Opposition?
The Opposition has been criticised for lacking an overarching narrative to fight the mighty BJP led by PM Modi, who aims to secure a third straight term in office in the 2024 general elections. Will electoral bonds become a poll issue?
On March 15, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called the just-released data of electoral bonds the ‘biggest extortion racket’ in the world run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Wayanad MP’s claim came a day after the Election Commission of India released the State Bank of India-provided data on political donations made by companies and individuals through now-scrapped bonds.
The first tranche of data was released two days before the poll panel announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 scheduled to begin on April 19. Unsurprisingly, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the lion’s share of funds - ₹ 6,986.5 crore.
Quid pro quo charges
The whopping amount apart, the allegation of ‘quid pro quo’ against the ruling party should provide a window of opportunity for the Opposition parties, led by the Congress, against the BJP in poll season, according to political observers. At least 14 companies that have reportedly donated over ₹4,000 crore to political parties, including the BJP, are being investigated by central agencies, as per the first data released on March 14.
The charge has not yet been officially established.
Introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP government seven years ago, the Electoral Bond scheme allowed individuals and companies to donate money to political parties anonymously. However, on February 15, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud scrapped the ‘unconstitutional’ scheme. The Election Commission of India released the data last week in accordance with the SC order.
“There couldn’t be better timing for the date to come out. The ruling party, which has been targeting Congress and other parties of corruption for over a decade, could find itself at the receiving end if at all the Opposition wants,” said a political analyst.
A lacking narrative
For quite some time now, the beleaguered Opposition has been facing criticism for lacking an overarching narrative to fight the mighty BJP led by PM Modi, who aims to secure a third straight term in office in the impending elections.
The BJP won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and unseated a ‘corrupt’ Congress-led UPA government. It retained its government in 2019 by, what many would later say, riding on a nationalistic fervour against the backdrop of the cross-border strike in Balakot after the Pulwama attack.
“They (BJP) have a powerful face in PM Narendra Modi, who is seen as a decisive man. He has fulfilled all manifesto promises - Article 370, Ram Mandir and now CAA. Add to this his welfare (labharthi) schemes. Not to forget the mighty organisational machine that the BJP has. How can you expect Congress to challenge this when it cannot even keep its allies like Nitish Kumar and Jayant Chaudhary together?” questioned a political analyst.
Also Read: ‘Modi ji twisting ‘Shakti’ remark’: Rahul Gandhi clarifies after PM Modi’s ‘jaan ki baazi’ attack
The opposition’s INDIA bloc, in an effort to put up a united fight against the BJP, has had its own issues to deal with. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting alone in her state, and Bihar Chief Minister, one of the architects of the bloc, has deserted it.
Prashant Kishor, who has given up political consultancy and is leading his “Jan Suraaj” campaign in Bihar, had pointed out the lack of narrative in the Opposition ranks within the INDIA bloc.
“A combined opposition can work only if it succeeds in creating a narrative against the regime. The Janata Party experiment came on the back of the Emergency and Jayaprakash Narayan’s mass movement. During VP Singh’s rule, the Bofors scandal had caught the public imagination,” Kishor said.
Not just BJP
Some analysts say it was natural that the ruling party in the country was the largest beneficiary of these anonymous bonds, but almost all political parties benefited, too. Others said much will depend on the Opposition’s ability to establish quid pro quo.
“Not just the BJP. It’s the whole political system that wants to preserve the flow of unaccounted money. That is why, in spite of several concrete reforms proposed by the EC for years now, Parliament has not taken them up,” author and political analyst Pavan K Varma said in a TV interview with RedMike.
The BJP insists that the revelations post the court order would not affect its chances in the Lok Sabha 2024 polls. Party leader and former Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad rubbished the Opposition claims that the donation scheme was responsible for giving the party a dramatic edge over its rivals. “As for a level playing field, the question is whether you are in the field or outside it. People decide whether you are in the field,” Prasad told reporters.
Congress too
In response to the Opposition’s allegations, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asked, “Will Rahul Gandhi return the electoral bonds that the Congress received? Who did the party threaten to get the funds?”
Between April 12, 2019, and February 14, 2024, the BJP received around 47 per cent of the secret funding funnelled to political parties through electoral bonds, the TMC received12 per cent, and the Congress received 11 per cent.
Also Read: ‘Chaar June ko...’: PM Modi sounds clarion call for Lok Sabha polls during Karnataka rally
The total donations comprising 20,421 bonds during this period was about ₹12,769 crore, according to the election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the petitioner in the Electoral Bond case in the Supreme Court.
Barring the CPI(M), all other political parties in the Opposition took donations through the electoral bonds scheme. The left-wing party was also among the petitioners before the Supreme Court in the case.
For now, it seems that the Opposition parties — most of whom have hit out at the BJP — are upbeat on electoral bonds. But whether or not this becomes the focal point of a united political campaign against the BJP remains to be seen as the country goes to polls in a month from now.
And as for targeting PM Modi, the BJP is known for weaponising the Opposition’s jibes at the Prime Minister.
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First Published:19 Mar 2024, 01:19 PM IST
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