‘No concessions on donations’: DMK responds to attacks by ‘lottery king’ donors

chennai:

Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK has hit back at rival AIADMK’s offensive on the electoral bonds issue, saying it has transparently disclosed the names of donors and stressed that Stalin’s government will not make concessions in exchange for donations.

Earlier, data released by the Election Commission of India showed that Future Gaming and Hospitality, the largest donor of electoral bonds, donated Rs 509 crore to the DMK. Future Gaming’s owner, Santiago Martin, also known as the “Lottery King,” is under constant surveillance by the Enforcement Directorate.

Soon after the data was released, DMK’s main rival AIADMK launched a scathing attack. Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami cited the DMK government’s laws against online gaming. Mr Palaniswami said: “The state government enacted a weak law of the same name to ban online gambling and shamefully collected cash from a gambling company that put people’s lives on the line.”

DMK MP TR Baalu ​​denied the allegations, saying the Stalin government enacted the law banning online gaming after a long struggle and made no concessions to gaming companies. “It was the governor who delayed the approval of the law and the government re-enacted it. It was the governor who met with the owners of online gaming companies,” he added.

In 2021, the then AIADMK government enacted a law banning online gambling. The legislation was later struck down by the Madras High Court. After the DMK government came to power in 2022, the MK Stalin government formed a committee headed by a retired high court judge to look into online gaming. Based on the group’s recommendations, a new bill was introduced and passed by the House of Representatives. After some delay, the Governor agreed. The law was challenged in the Madras High Court. The court declined to strike down the bill but said the law did not apply to games of skill such as rummy.

In a counterattack, Mr Balu lashed out at Mr Palaniswami for remaining silent over what he called “BJP’s extortion”. “Fourteen of the 30 companies threatened by the Enforcement Directorate have donated large sums of money to the BJP. Does EPS have the courage to condemn?” The AIADMK and the BJP parted ways last year, but the DMK called the break-up a “drama”.

The disclosure of electoral bonds in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling has sparked a massive political spat, with rivals turning on each other as more information emerges.

Data shows that the BJP has received Rs 6,986.5 crore through now-abandoned donations, the highest of any political party. Trinamool Congress (Rs 1,397 crore) and Congress (Rs 1,334 crore) are second and third, but with a wide gap. The pollster also released information on donations received by political parties through bonds. Ten prominent groups, including the DMK, also announced their donors and their donation amounts.

In Tamil Nadu, the revelations triggered political strikes and counterattacks. DMK president Stalin said electoral bonds fueled “white collar corruption” in the BJP. Chidambaram, the Congress leader, said that “the ill-gotten gains did not flow into the education ministry and government coffers as claimed, but into the BJP through extortion”.

The state’s BJP leaders hit back. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a media event: “Despite donations, we are lagging behind them, do you understand?” Proportionately, this is less than what the DMK (which governs only Tamil Nadu) got.”