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Will disclose details of electoral bond in time: Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar
The assertion comes in the wake of the Supreme Court directing the SBI to submit the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 to the ECI
The Election Commission has received details of electoral bonds from the State Bank of India (SBI) and will share all relevant information in time, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said in Jammu on Wednesday.
The assertion comes in the wake of the Supreme Court directing the SBI to submit the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 to the ECI. SBI is the authorised financial institution to issue the electoral bonds.
“Anything we do in the commission and anything from district magistrate down the line is based on disclosure. Voter have right to know everything that what are we doing and how are we doing,” he added.
“The SBI was supposed to submit the data by March 12. They have given to us the details in time. I will go back and look at the data (and) would definitely disclose it in time,” Kumar told reporters.
Read Here: Electoral bond details on ECI website by March 15. Will we know source of donations?
Kumar reached Jammu on Wednesday to review preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Decision on simultaneous polls after security review
On much awaited assembly elections in J&K, Kumar said that ECI was concerned about holding Lok Sabha and assembly elections but the final call on holding them simultaneously or one by one would taken after deliberations with political parties and a security review.
He also rejected criticism about the “delay” in holding assembly elections in the Union Territory, saying delimitation and necessary legislative processes were completed by December 2023 only.
“The changes happened in December 2023 and we are in March… We know our responsibilities and we are also aware that there should be no political vacuum and the elections should be held sooner,” he told reporters before wrapping up his three-day tour of Jammu and Kashmir to assess the preparedness for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Read Here | Electoral bonds: Supreme Court raps SBI, asks ‘what steps have you taken in last 26 days?’
He said the commission had taken feedback from stakeholders including political parties, security agencies and administration on holding assembly elections with the upcoming general elections.
“We reviewed whether the two elections will be held together or one after another. We will decide after reviewing the security situation and taking the feedback.
He said the J&K Reorganisation Act came in 2019, followed by a delimitation commission which completed its exercise in 2022.
“Now, we have 90 assembly seats including nine seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes. There was no chance of holding elections as there was a dissonance between the J&K reorganisation act and the delimitation.
“We have to bring them together and that happened in December 2023 in the form of the J&K Reorganisation (Amendment) Act,” he said.
