India News | CAL39 BH-ELECTORAL BONDS-LEFT PARTIES Bihar: Left Parties Welcome SC Verdict to Strike Down Electoral Bond Scheme

Patna, Feb 15 (PTI) CPI(M-L) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Electoral Bond Scheme, describing it as "anti-democratic and unconstitutional."

Talking to PTI, Bhattacharya said, "We welcome the much-awaited verdict of the SC annulling the BJP government's electoral bond scheme. The bonds were anti-democratic and unconstitutional. The regime that inflicted this unconstitutional scheme must now be punished by the people".

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Bhattacharya also called for transparency regarding corporate funding and urged the Election Commission to disclose details of donations made through electoral bonds.

"Hope the top court now gets the Election Commission to bring to public domain the details of the corporate funding that has taken place through the unconstitutional electoral bonds and retrospectively remove the screen of anonymity from the nexus between corporate power and the BJP, the biggest beneficiary of this unconstitutional scheme", he said.

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He highlighted the BJP's significant benefit from the scheme since 2017 and criticised the government for disregarding warnings about its potential for corruption. Bhattacharya concluded by calling on India to vote out the regime funded by electoral bonds in the upcoming 2024 elections.

"Since 2017, the BJP has received majority of all political donations through the electoral bonds, making it the main beneficiary of the scheme. To ensure this, Modi regime even overruled RBI's and the Election Commission's warnings that electoral bonds would fuel black money and electoral corruption," he said.

"India must now vote out the regime funded by dubious corporate-backed electoral bonds in the forthcoming 2024 elections," he added.

The CPI also welcomed the apex court verdict.

A statement by Ram Naresh Pandey, state secretary (Bihar), CPI, said, "This decision of the SC will strengthen the democratic system in the country. Electoral bonds are against the democratic system of the country".

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)