Congress: Electoral Bonds Data Reveals BJP’s “Corrupt Tactics”

Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress, added that the party is still in favor of distinct bond ID numbers in order to accurately identify contributors with recipients

New Delhi: On Friday, the Congress said that the electoral bonds data revealed the “corrupt tactics” of the BJP, including money laundering through shell firms, quid pro quo, and requesting donations for the company’s protection.
Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress, added that the party is still in favor of distinct bond ID numbers in order to accurately identify contributors with recipients.

After “attempting to postpone it until after the election” for weeks, the SBI released the Electoral Bonds (EB) data disclosure. Mr. Ramesh provided a “quick first analysis” of it in a post on X.

According to Mr. Ramesh, the electoral bonds data currently reveals at least four of the BJP’s dishonest strategies.

“Quid Pro Quo: Megha Engineering & Infra has donated over ₹ 800 crores in electoral bonds (EBs).” There are numerous instances of firms that have provided EBs and then immediately received significant benefits from the government. He said that after donating ₹ 140 crore in April 2023, they were given the ₹ 14,400 crore Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel Project just one month later.

According to Mr. Ramesh, Jindal Steel and Power awarded ₹ 25 crore in equity bonds on October 7, 2022, and three days later, on October 10, 2022, they were awarded the Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine.

“Hafta Vasooli: The BJP uses the ED, CBI, and IT to simply raid a target, then ask for hafta (or “donations”) to protect the enterprise. “There have been raids on at least 14 out of the top 30 donors,” he claimed.

Companies were coerced into making donations to the BJP through electoral trusts following ED, CBI, and IT raids, according to an earlier this year inquiry, Ramesh claimed.

He noted that several of the same businesses, like Yashoda Hospital and Hetero Pharma, had made donations through EBs.

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

“Future Gaming & Hotels is the biggest donor in the data thus far, having contributed more over ₹ 1200 crore. This is the timeline: ED searches Future on April 2, 2022, and five days later, on April 7, they give ₹ 100 crores in equity bonds,” Mr. Ramesh stated.

In October 2023, the IT department raids Future, and that same month, they give ₹ 65 crores in equity bonds, he claimed.

Additionally, Mr. Ramesh claimed that the data indicates the presence of kickbacks because of a trend that shows that businesses have paid back the Central government for its favors with electoral bonds as soon as they receive subsidies.

On March 3, 2021, Vedanta acquired the privately owned coal mine in Radhikapur West. In April of the same year, 2021, they provided ₹ 25 crore in electoral bonds, he claimed.

“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 stated.

Additionally, he stated that Megha donated ₹ 56 crore in December 2022, the same month she received the contract for the BKC bullet train station.

According to data, Mr. Ramesh claimed, money laundering through shell businesses has also occurred.

The removal of the cap on the percentage of a company’s income that may be donated, which allowed shell businesses to donate illicit funds, is a major problem with the electoral bonds scheme. He stated, “There are numerous dubious situations like the ₹ 410 crore donation from Qwik Supply Chain Limited, a business whose total share capital is only ₹ 130 crores based on MoCA filings.

Missing data is another significant problem, according to the Congressman.

Although SBI sold the first tranche of bonds in March 2018, the data it provided only goes back to April 2019.

This data is missing bonds worth ₹ 2,500 crores in total. Where is the March 2018–April 2019 data for these missing bonds? For example, the BJP received 95% of the proceeds in the first tranche of bonds. He asked, “Who is the BJP attempting to defend?

“Many more examples of the BJP’s corruption will come to light as the investigation of the electoral bonds data progresses. In order to accurately identify donors to recipients, we also still require distinct bond ID numbers, Mr. Ramesh added.

Additionally, Mr. Ramesh claimed that the data indicates kickbacks because of a trend that shows that businesses have paid back the Central government for its favors with electoral bonds as soon as they receive freebies. Prominent purchasers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for political donations included steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services.

The information was supplied with the poll panel on March 12 by the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized seller of electoral bonds, in accordance with a Supreme Court decision.

The Election Commission was given until March 15 at 5 p.m. by the highest court to submit the data to its website.

Between April 1, 2019, and February 15 of this year, donors bought 22,217 electoral bonds of various denominations, of which political parties redeemed 22,030, according to the SBI.