BJP using electoral bonds for Quid Pro Quo: Congress

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh while responding to the Election Commission making public the list of donations received by political parties through electoral bonds, said that the government's electoral bond policy has made it clear that it has given work only to those companies and individuals who donated to BJP through electoral bonds.

He said, "This is the first analysis since the information related to the electoral bonds came to light, which the SBI made public last night after weeks of trying to postpone it until after the elections.

"This includes over 1,300 companies and individuals who have donated in the form of electoral bonds, including donations of over Rs 6,000 crore to the BJP since 2019. So far, the electoral bonds data exposes at least 4 corrupt tactics of the BJP."

The spokesperson said, "The first is Quid Pro Quo and there are many cases of companies that have donated electoral bonds and received huge benefits from the government soon after.

"This includes Megha Engineering & Infra has given over Rs 800 crores in EBs. In April 2023, they donated Rs 140 crores, and just one month later, they were awarded Rs 14,400 crore Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel Project. Similarly, Jindal Steel & Power gave Rs 25 crores in EBs on 7 October 2022, and just 3 days later, they won the Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine, on 10th October 2022."

Terming at ‘Hafta Vasooli’ strategy of the BJP he said, “First 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”.

Earlier this year an investigation found that after ED/CBI/IT raids, companies were forced to donate to the BJP via electoral trusts. Many of the same companies have donated through EBs, like Hetero Pharma and Yashoda Hospital, he added.

He said that the IT department raided Shirdi Sai Electricals in December 2023, and in January 2024, they donated Rs 40 crores through electoral bonds. Future Gaming & Hotels, has donated over Rs 1200 crore, making it the largest donor in the data so far.

Its chronology is that on April 2, 2022, ED raided Future and 5 days later on April 7, it donated Rs 100 crore in electoral bonds. In October 2023, the IT department raided Future and in the same month he donated Rs 65 crore in electoral bonds, Ramesh said.

Calling it as ‘Kicjbacks’ Ramesh said that a pattern emerges from the data, where immediately after receiving some handouts from the Central government, companies have repaid the favour through electoral bonds.

He also accused the BJP of involvement in Money Laundering through shell companies.

He said that 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 Rs 410 crore that has been donated by Qwik Supply Chain Limited, a company whose entire share capital is just Rs 130 crores according to MoCA filings.

Alleging missing data, Ramesh said, "The data provided by SBI only begins in April 2019, but SBI sold the first tranche of bonds in March 2018. A total of Rs 2,500 crores 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% of the funds. Who is the BJP trying to protect?"

"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," the Congress leader said.