The Rajya Sabha quid pro quo headache for parties | Powertrip

Welcome to Powertrip, a newsletter exclusively curated for TNM subscribers by Dhanya Rajendran, Shabbir Ahmed, and Pooja Prasanna. In this week’s newsletter, we look at how electoral bonds were used to secure Rajya Sabha seats and why two Congress names are facing stiff resistance in Tamil Nadu..Rajya Sabha quid pro quo through bondsA lot of political parties are worried that the quid pro quo deals struck by them to give Rajya Sabha nominations to business people would be out in the open soon. That Rajya Sabha tickets are often for sale is no secret in political circles. However, what the electoral bond data is showing us is how much a Rajya Sabha seat is worth now. For example, Hetero group paid Rs 50 crore to Bharat Rashtra Samithi just before group chairman B Partha Saradhi Reddy was nominated as a Rajya Sabha member by the party. Though this is one of the examples that have emerged from the data, parties tell us that there are quite a few more. However, the only relief is that in many cases the money has been routed through third parties and therefore may not be easy to link.In one case, a close friend of a top businessman was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by a party in the south and they were flooded with bonds just a little before that. However, the bonds came through a third party and therefore the opposition is scratching their heads over how to make the allegation. Unpopular Congress leaders and DMK’s fix in Tamil NaduTwo potential Congress candidates in Tamil Nadu are facing a lot of resistance within the party. So much so that Congress leaders are now lobbying with the DMK for the alliance to not issue tickets in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to Karur MP Jothimani and data analyst Praveen Chakravarty. Jothimani wants to recontest from Karur but many local Congress and DMK leaders are stiffly opposing this citing disagreements in the past. And Chakravarty’s push to be the alliance’s candidate from Mayiladuthurai is being opposed because he is a Delhi face and a technocrat with no experience in electoral politics. He is trusted by Rahul Gandhi and was appointed chairperson of the All India Professionals’ Congress in November last year.But both have been lobbying heavily and might be given tickets. The DMK is now in a fix over this and CM Stalin is said to have told his party leaders that they can only discuss the number of seats with the Congress and cannot interfere in who the Congress gives tickets to.Prashant Kishor and his fallout with IPACPrashant Kishor, or PK as he is called, and his brainchild political strategy firm IPAC parted ways a while ago. But we have now learnt that the relations between the two have turned sour. While the decision to branch out on his own was PK’s, he did not relinquish control over IPAC and was seen as meddling with the parties they work with. That’s not all. We learnt that at the root of the animosity was an allegation that there was diversion of resources and funds from IPAC to PK’s Jan Suraj yatra in Bihar. PK has, of course, always maintained that he never planned to be a strategist all his life and that politics was his natural calling..Zero HourA political story of public importance.The costs of Reliance’s wildlife ambitions.Led by Anant Ambani and supported by the Indian government, Reliance’s effort to shelter abused elephants has transmuted into an enormous wildlife centre – raising concerns over the sourcing of some animals as well as over India’s wildlife management..PowermovesTop 5 political stories1. Businessman accused in Rs 100-crore Delhi liquor scam paid BJP Rs 55 crore via bonds2. The bond between 'Lottery King' Santiago Martin, political parties and probe agencies3. Not just electoral bonds, BJP is biggest beneficiary of all political finance4. BJP’s top donors: Megha, Reliance-linked firms, Keventer, Birla, Bharti, Vedanta5. Santiago Martin's Company Donates Largest Electoral Bonds to TMC, DMK & YSRCP

The Rajya Sabha quid pro quo headache for parties | Powertrip

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