NEW DELHI, Nov. 6 -- Money and muscle power play an important role in Indian elections is well-known. The monies spent on campaigns by candidates in Parliament and Assembly elections are invariably many times more than what is legally permitted by the Election Commission of India.

There have been many attempts by successive governments to cleanse the electoral process including banning of donations by companies to political parties. However, political corruption by all accounts only increased as time went by.

The Union Government in January 2018 with the aim "to cleanse the system of political funding in the country" and to bring about transparency in election funding introduced a scheme of Electoral Bonds through which individuals or ...