Election Financial News

Reuters. This ruling paved the way for the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president. For the case, Justice Juan Merchan set a trial date of March 25 – one of four criminal prosecutions Trump faces as he pursues the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the 5 November 5 US election. Earlier, Trump has asked Merchan to toss the 34-count indictment, which charges him with falsifying business records to cover up the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday ruled that NCP's Ajit Pawar faction is the real Nationalist Congress Party. «The NCP constitution and the leadership structure of the party does not provide any clue to decide which is the real faction, hence, I have gone by the third yardstick which is legislative majority to decide the issue,» Narwekar said. «The Sharad Pawar faction hasn't challenged the claim of legislative majority enjoyed by the Sharad Pawar faction,» he added. The Sharad Pawar faction has not been able to show that they have a majority in the national executive, said Narwekar. Ajit Pawar has numerical strength in the legislative assembly, he said.

Supreme Court verdict striking down the electoral bonds scheme is a «great boon for democracy», former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi said on Thursday. N Gopalaswami, who was the chief election commissioner from June 2006 to April 2009, said, «We are still very long way off in cleaning up the electoral funding system.» A five-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said the electoral bonds scheme violates the right to information and the freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution. The top court directed that the SBI must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by the political parties. The information should include the date of encashment and the denomination of the bonds and be submitted to the poll panel by March 6.

TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty on Thursday announced her resignation from the post. She met party chief Mamata Banerjee and expressed her desire to quit as a parliamentarian, asserting that «politics is not my cup of tea». Chakraborty, a first-time MP from Jadavpur, went to the state assembly in the afternoon to meet Banerjee, also the chief minister. «Today, I met our party supremo. I had submitted my resignation to her on February 13. I have understood in all these years that politics is not my cup of tea,» she told reporters.

JDS leader Kupendra Reddy emerged as the surprise fifth candidate for the Rajya Sabha election from Karnataka. He filed the nomination papers for the February 27 polls, in which MLAs are the voters, in the presence of JDS and BJP leaders. There are only four vacancies, and one BJP and three Congress candidates would have won unopposed, but the contest has taken a curious turn with the entry of Reddy as NDA candidate. The development is sure to send a chill in the Congress camp, causing worries of cross voting. The Congress on Wednesday night named AICC leader Ajay Maken, and sitting RS members GC Chandrashekar and Syed Naseer Hussain, for the three seats. Maken is taking the seat vacated by Dalit writer L Hanumanthaiah. The BJP has named former MLC Narayansa Bhandage for the outgoing member Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s seat.

₹763.90 apiece on the BSE after the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the state-owned lender to disclose details of electoral bonds encashed by the political parties, including date and denomination. Earlier today, the top court declared the controversial electoral bonds scheme as 'unconstitutional' and in violation of the right to information and Article 19(1)(a). The ruling stated that allowing corporates to make unlimited contributions is arbitrary and against the fundamental rights of citizens.

The explosion of artificial-intelligence technology makes it easier than ever to deceive people on the internet, and is turning the 2024 U.S. presidential election into an unprecedented test on how to police deceptive content. An early salvo was fired last month in New Hampshire.

prime minister Imran Khan said on Thursday that the jailed leader had nominated Omar Ayub Khan as a candidate in a parliamentary vote to elect a new premier following last week's national elections. The polls did not return a clear majority for anyone, but independent candidates backed by Khan won 92 out of 264 seats making them the largest group. Khan ruled out alliances with the three largest parties, which means his candidate currently does not have the numbers to form government.

Supreme Court on Thursday banned electoral bonds that had become a major source of funding for political parties in India. The scheme, termed 'unconstitutional' now by the apex court contributed over Rs 16,000 crore to political parties' coffers since 2018. Among the beneficiaries, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stands out, receiving a lion's share of around 55%, or approximately Rs 6,565 crore, PTI reported citing data from the Election Commission and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). These bonds, which allow for anonymous donations, have been a key component of political funding, with some regional parties relying heavily on them for financial support.

TikTok is taking measures to combat misinformation about the upcoming European Union elections including setting up fact-checking hubs inside the app

NDTV on Thursday cited sources as saying that all seven candidates who have been dropped from Rajya Sabha may be fielded from Lok Sabha constituencies in various states in the upcoming general elections. On February 14, the Congress also nominated several candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls.

Mint. However, a pick up in the purchase of gold is expected during the second half of the year, as good monsoons are likely to see a spurt in the demand for the yellow metal and as consumers adjust to higher prices, Somasundaram said. "There is going to be a spurt in demand for gold after general elections, as people will have more money in hand," he added.

By Suban Abdulla and Andy Bruce

Supreme Court has declared the electoral bonds scheme as "unconstitutional," stating that anonymous corporate contributions to political parties are «violative of the right to information.» The decision was announced by a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Thursday. The decision comes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April-May this year. Key Observations and Directions from the Bench

Congress on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict striking down the electoral bond scheme, and said it will reinforce the power of votes over notes. In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, «The Supreme Court has held the much-touted Electoral Bonds scheme of the Modi Sarkar as violative of both laws passed by Parliament as well as the Constitution of India.» The long-awaited verdict is hugely welcome and will reinforce the power of votes over notes, he said. Read Also | Electoral bond SC verdict: India will know all info about all donors and receivers, hidden so far, by March 13

BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav was on Thursday elected as the Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav escorted the new speaker to the Chair. Yadav, a seven-time MLA from Patna Sahib assembly constituency had filed his nomination for the Speaker's post on Tuesday, a day after his predecessor, Awadh Bihari Choudhary of the RJD, was voted out in a no-confidence motion. After Choudhary's removal from the Speaker's chair, Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari of JD (U), was conducting the proceedings of the House.

Electoral bond: In a landmark judgment delivered on February 15, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the electoral bonds scheme, holding these bonds «unconstitutional». The State Bank of India, the authorised seller of these poll bonds, was directed by the apex court to provide details of donations made through these bonds, as well as all relevant info on whoever the money went to. Holding political donations by companies as purely for «quid pro quo purposes», the top court ordered that the information of all corporate contributors be made public.

₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore. In July last year, the ADR data had revealed that more than half of all donations made to political parties between 2016-17 and 2021-22 were through electoral bonds and the BJP received more funds than all other national parties put together.

₹1.63 crore, as reported by Business Today. Amitabh Bachchan's net worth, on the other hand, has been reported as ₹273.74 crore for the same year. Last seen in the movie Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, Jaya, declared in the affidavit that she has a bank balance of ₹10.11 crore.

Mint. However, group CEO Anish Shah said the tractor market was coming off its best-ever volumes in the past three years, and though several positive and negative factors were affecting rural demand, "the rural economy is doing reasonably well". Jejurikar said, "We expect the tractor industry to be more negative than what we'd thought, based on what we've seen over the past few months.

Supreme Court is set to announce its verdict regarding petitions challenging the validity of the electoral bonds scheme on February 15. The Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, had reserved its decision on November 2 last year. In April 2019, the Supreme Court declined to stay the electoral bonds scheme, emphasising the need to reduce the cash component in the electoral process.