Electoral bonds data exposes BJP’s ‘corrupt tactics’: Congress

“Over 1,300 companies and individuals have donated electoral bonds, including over ₹6,000 crore to the BJP since 2019,” he said.

So far, the electoral bonds data exposes at least four corrupt tactics of the BJP, Ramesh claimed.

“Quid Pro Quo: There are many cases of companies that have donated electoral bonds, and immediately afterwards gotten huge benefits from the government: Megha Engineering & Infra has given over ₹800 crore in EBs. In April 2023, they donated ₹140 crore, and just one month later, they were awarded the ₹14,400 crore Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel Project,” he alleged.

Jindal Steel and Power gave ₹25 crore in EBs on 7 October 2022, and just three days later, they won the Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine, on 10 October 2022, Ramesh claimed.

“Hafta Vasooli: The BJP’s Hafta Vasooli strategy is simple raid a target through the ED/CBI/IT, and then seek hafta (“donations”) for the company’s protection. At least 14 of the top 30 donors have been raided,” he alleged.

Earlier this year, an investigation found that after ED/CBI/IT raids, companies were forced to donate to the BJP via electoral trusts, Ramesh said.

Many of the same companies have donated through EBs, like Hetero Pharma and Yashoda Hospital, he pointed out.

Here’s a quick first analysis of the Electoral Bonds data disclosure that the SBI put up last night, after weeks of attempting to postpone it until after the election:

•Over 1,300 companies and individuals have donated electoral bonds, including over 6,000 crores to the BJP…

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) March 15, 2024

“The IT department raided Shirdi Sai Electricals in December 2023, and in January 2024, they donated ₹40 crore through Electoral Bonds,” the Congress leader claimed.

“Future Gaming & Hotels has donated over ₹1,200 crore, making it the largest donor in the data so far. Here is the chronology: April 2 2022: ED raids Future, and 5 days later (7 April) they donate ₹100 crore in EBs,” Ramesh claimed.

IT department raids Future in October 2023 and the same month, they donate ₹65 crore in EBs, he said.

Ramesh also alleged that the data also points to kickbacks as a pattern emerges where immediately after receiving some handouts from the Union government, companies have repaid the favour through electoral bonds.

“Vedanta got the Radhikapur West private coal mine on 3 March 2021, and then in April 2021, they donated ₹25 crore in Electoral Bonds,” he alleged.

“Megha Engineering & Infra got the ₹4,500 crore Zojila tunnel project in August 2020, then donated ₹20 crore in Electoral Bonds in October 2020,” Ramesh highlighted.

He also claimed that the company got the BKC bullet train station contract in December 2022, and donated ₹56 crore the same month.

Also Read: Electoral bonds: BJP received ₹6,060 crore, BRS with ₹1,214.7 crore tops in South

‘Money laundering, missing data’

Ramesh alleged that data also shows there has been money laundering through shell companies.

“One huge issue with the electoral bonds scheme is that it removed the restriction that only a small percentage of a company’s profits could be donated, paving the way for shell companies to donate black money. There are many such suspicious cases, such as the ₹410 crore that has been donated by Qwik Supply Chain Limited, a company whose entire share capital is just ₹130 crore, according to MoCA filings,” he said.

The Congress leader said another major issue is missing data.

The data provided by SBI only begins in April 2019, but SBI sold the first tranche of bonds in March 2018.

“A total of ₹2,500 crore in bonds are missing from this data. Where is the data of these missing bonds, from March 2018 to April 2019? For instance, in the very first tranche of bonds, the BJP bagged 95 percent of the funds. Who is the BJP trying to protect?” he said.

“As the analysis of the electoral bonds data continues, many more such cases of the BJP’s corruption will become clear. We also continue to demand unique bond ID numbers, so that we can precisely match donors to recipients,” Ramesh said.

Ramesh also alleged that the data points to kickbacks as a pattern emerges where immediately after receiving some handouts from the Union government, companies have repaid the favour through electoral bonds.

From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.

Also Read: Future Gaming, MEIL, Aditya Birla: Here are top 10 political donors through Electoral Bonds

Supreme Court’s directive

Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India (SBI), which was the authorised seller of electoral bonds, shared the data with the poll panel on 12 March.

The top court had given the Election Commission time till 5 pm on 15 March to upload the data on its website.

The SBI said a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of varying denominations were purchased by donors between 1 April, 2019, and 15 February this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties.