PM Modi Donates Rs 2000 To BJP's 'Party Fund' Ahead Of LS Polls, Urges Everyone To Contribute

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday contributed Rs 2,000 to the Bharatiya Janata Party as “party fund” ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He also urged everyone to take part in the ‘nation building’ and be a contributor via the NaMo App.

Taking to the microblogging site X, the prime minister said, “I am happy to contribute to @BJP4India and strengthen our efforts to build a Viksit Bharat. I also urge everyone to be a part of #DonationForNationBuilding through the Namo App! nm-4.com/donation.”

This comes a day after the saffron party released its first list of 195 candidates for the general elections. PM Modi will contest from Varanasi for a third time in the upcoming polls, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah will contest from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar.

The party’s donation campaign, on March 1, was started by national President JP Nadda, who made a contribution of Rs 1,000 to the BJP.

He said that the donation is a mark of his “individual support to PM Modi’s visions” of making the country a ‘Viksit Bharat.

“I have donated to the BJP to pledge my individual support to PM Modi’s visions for making India a Viksit Bharat. Let us all come forward and join this #DonationForNationBuilding mass movement using the NaMo App,” Nadda’s post on X said.

Last week, the six national parties of the nation declared their total income in the 2022-24 fiscal year. Of these, the BJP had the highest declared income of nearly Rs 2,361 crore.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on February 28 said that the ruling BJP’s income constitutes 76.73 per cent of the total income of the six national parties during FY 2022-23.

The saffron party received Rs 1294.15 crore through electoral bonds, while Opposition parties Congress and Aam Aadmi Party received Rs 171.02 crore and Rs 45.45 crore respectively.

Citing its records submitted to the Election Commission, ADR said that the BJP spend only 57.68 per cent of its declared income — Rs 2360.844 crore — which comes to be a sum of Rs 1,361.684 crore of the total income.

SC STRIKES DOWN ELECTORAL BONDS SCHEME

Notably, the Supreme Court — on February 15 — struck down the electoral bond scheme that allows anonymous donations to political parties by purchasing electoral bonds from the State Bank of India (SBI), saying that anonymous electoral bonds violated citizens’ right to information.

A five-judge Constitution bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, delivered two separate but unanimous verdicts on pleas challenging the scheme.

Calling electoral bonds ‘unconstitutional’, the apex court said, “Infringement of the voter’s right to know is not proportionally justified by saying black money is being curbed.”

Pronouncing the verdict, the CJI said that the scheme is violative of freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

The top court also directed banks to stop issuing electoral bonds. It asked SBI to submit a report on the electoral bonds and details of the ones encashed by political parties to the Election Commission of India by March 6.

It further directed the poll body to publish the data received on electoral bonds on its website by March 13. The Supreme Court asked the political parties to refund the amount to the voters thereafter.

(With PTI inputs)