Electoral Bonds Data is Out; Modi Rushes Appointment of Election Commissioners; Amit Shah Plays Down NRC

Simultaneous poll panel sets 2029 as reset date, Thimphu cold to Indian road through Bhutanese territory, how women are being forced to pay 'pink tax'

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK 

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Snapshot of the day

March 14, 2024

Siddharth Varadarajan

The Election Commission has uploaded the data of Electoral Bonds purchases as received from the State Bank of India. Here is the link to the list of donors. Enchashment details are in a separate list.

Could general elections be called tomorrow? [See Reportedly below]. The building blocks appear to be in place.

The executive-dominated selection panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today appointed two former Indian Administrative Service officers – Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu – as election commissioners. Before their appointment, the Election Commission had been down to just one member, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar, after the sudden and yet-inexplicable resignation of Arun Goel. Another election commissioner, Anup Pandey, had retired on February 15. Even by the prevailing standards of proximity between babus and bosses, the two seem especially committed. Gyanesh Kumar