Nitish Kumar's decision to form Mahagathbandhan govt 'slap on BJP's face: Tejashwi Yadav
New Delhi, Aug 12: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to form the Mahagathbandhan government was a "slap on the BJP's face" and a similar coming together of Opposition parties will be replicated across the country, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said on Friday after meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, who met Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence here, accused the BJP of working to finish regional parties and asserted that if they are finished, the Opposition and democracy will be finished as well.
Yadav, who also met CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja, said the pre-poll constituents of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) have welcomed the decision by Nitish Kumar.
"This government will run strongly because this government is a government for the poor...it is the government of the people. The decision by Nitish Kumar at the right time, you can say, is a slap on the BJP's face," he told reporters outside 10 Janpath.
Yadav said all parties have joined hands against the BJP in the Bihar Assembly, and added "now this is going to be replicated across the whole country".
"People are suffering due to inflation. There are those who want to rule by creating Hindu-Muslim tensions, put the Constitution and democracy in danger, they want to break the brotherhood, Bihar has once again given a new direction to the country," he said.
"For that we thank the chief minister, Sonia Gandhi ji, Yechury ji, Dipankar ji(Bhattacharya, CPI-ML general secretary), Raja ji and Lalu (Prasad) ji," he said.
Yadav said Lalu Prasad fought against communal forces and social justice.
"He (Lalu) never got scared nor did he bow before such forces," Yadav added.
He accused the BJP of destroying regional parties, citing the happenings in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
"BJP wants to scare those who get scared and buy those who are willing to be bought out," Yadav alleged.
"Constitutional institutions are being destroyed. Be it Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation or Income Tax (Department), their condition is worse than police stations. Who do they want to scare? We, the people of Bihar, are not going to be scared. I have said 'Bihari bikaau nahi, tikaau hota hai' (People of Bihar cannot be bought out, they are reliable)," he said.
They will never compromise with their self-respect, Yadav said, adding Bihar and Nitish Kumar have shown this.
Alleging that the BJP wants to destroy regional parties, he said regional parties are mostly of backwards and Dalits and the BJP wants to finish such parties.
"You wanted to finish Nitish Kumar, you created division in Ram Vilas Paswan ji's party. If regional parties are finished, Opposition will be finished, democracy will be finished. If democracy is finished, the country will be run in a dictatorial manner," he said.
Yadav's visit to Delhi, the first to the national capital after taking the oath of office, also holds significance as Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad is here and the finalisation of names of ministers is set to be high on the agenda during discussions between the two.
The cabinet, which at present comprises only Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Yadav as his deputy, is due for expansion early next week.
Earlier, he met Yechury and Raja here and is learnt to have discussed the developments in Bihar as well as the way forward.
After the meeting, Yadav said in a tweet that he met the two Left leaders and had a positive discussion on the current social, economic and political scenario prevailing in the country and Bihar.
"Bihar, the land which gave birth to democracy, has again shown the way to the country," Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.
He also celebrated Raksha Bandhan with his sisters here.
Yadav is likely to be back in Bihar soon for the cabinet expansion expected immediately after Independence Day.
The expansion would be followed, later this month, by a special session of the assembly when the new government will prove its majority on the floor.
The RJD leader served as deputy chief minister of Bihar from 2015 to 2017.
Kumar and Yadav had taken oath on Wednesday, a day after the JD(U) snapped ties with the BJP-led NDA and joined hands with the RJD, the Congress and some other parties to form a Mahagathbandhan' government.
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BJP tops list of national parties with over Rs 2,243 crore in donations in FY 2023-24: ADR
New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI): The BJP received the highest amount in large donations among national parties in the financial year 2023-24, with over Rs 2,243 crore declared from 8,358 donations, according to a report by poll rights body the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The report, based on data submitted to the Election Commission, highlighted trends in political donations above Rs 20,000.
The total declared donations to national parties stood at Rs 2,544.28 crore from 12,547 contributions — a sharp 199 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
BJP's declared donations alone accounted for 88 per cent of the total. The Congress was a very distant second with Rs 281.48 crore from 1,994 donations.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), and National People's Party (NPEP) reported smaller amounts, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) once again declared zero donations above the Rs 20,000 threshold, consistent with its filings for the past 18 years.
Donations to the BJP increased from Rs 719.858 crore in FY 2022-23 to Rs 2,243.94 crore in FY 2023-24, marking a 211.72 per cent increase. Similarly, donations to the Congress rose from Rs 79.924 crore in FY 2022-23 to Rs 281.48 crore in FY 2023-24, reflecting a 252.18 per cent increase, the report said.
Over the same period, donations declared by the AAP decreased by 70.18 per cent or Rs 26.038 crore, while donations declared by NPEP decreased by 98.02 per cent or Rs 7.331 crore, it said
Despite the ECI's deadline of September 30, 2024, only BSP and AAP submitted their contribution reports on time. BJP submitted its report with a 42-day delay, followed by CPI(M), INC, and NPEP, which submitted it 43, 27, and 23 days late.
The report said 3,755 donations to the national parties were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 2,262.55 crore (88.92 per cent of total donations), while 8,493 individual donors donated Rs 270.872 crore (10.64 per cent of total donations) in FY 2023-24.
The report said that 3,478 of these donations were made to BJP (Rs 2,064.58 crore). The party received Rs 169.126 crore through 4,628 individual donors in FY 2023-24.
"The Congress received a total of Rs 190.3263 cr via 102 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 90.899 cr via 1,882 individual donors during FY 2023-24," it said.
The ADR said BJP at Rs 2064.58 crore received more than nine times the total amount (Rs 197.97 crore) of all corporate donations declared by all other national parties for FY 2023-24.
Prudent Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 880 crore to BJP and INC together and is the top donor to parties that received the maximum donations.
The Trust donated Rs 723.675 crore to the BJP (32.25 per cent of total funds received by the party) and Rs 156.4025 crore to the INC (55.56 per cent of total funds received by the party).
Triumph Electoral Trust donated Rs 127.50 crore in four donations to the BJP, and Derive Investments donated Rs 50 crore to it and Rs 3.20 crore to the Congress.
Acme Solar Energy Pvt Ltd donated Rs 51 crore through five donations, Bharat Biotech International Limited donated Rs 50 crore in a single donation, Rungta Sons Private Limited donated Rs 50 crore through a single donation, and Dinesh Chandra R Agarwal Infracon Pvt Ltd donated Rs 30 crore through a single donation to BJP in FY 2023-24, the report said.
ADR observed that Prudent Electoral Trust's report declared contributing 31 donations worth Rs 723.78 crore to BJP, however, the party in its report declared receiving 30 donations worth Rs 723.675 crore.
According to the Jaybharath Electoral Trust report for FY 2023-24, it donated Rs 5 crore to the BJP. However, the contribution report of BJP for the same financial year does not mention this contribution, ADR said.
ADR recommended stringent enforcement of disclosure norms, including the rejection of incomplete reports and mandatory PAN details for all donations above Rs 20,000.
It also called for annual scrutiny of party donation reports by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and advocated for making donor details publicly accessible under the Right to Information Act.
It urged the Election Commission to publish information on action taken against parties failing to meet disclosure standards and pushed for the creation of an online platform to track report submissions and transparency.
