New Delhi:

The Congress on Friday claimed that electoral bond data exposed the BJP’s “corrupt tactics” such as quid pro quo, seeking donations to protect companies, collecting kickbacks through shell companies and money laundering.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also said the party continues to demand unique bond ID numbers to enable precise matching of donors and recipients.

In a post on

“Since 2019, more than 1,300 companies and individuals have donated electoral bonds, including over Rs 6,000 crore,” he said.

Ramesh claimed that the electoral bond data has exposed at least four corruption strategies of the BJP so far.

“Quid Quote: There are many companies that donated electoral bonds and then immediately received huge benefits from the government: Megha Engineering & Infra has donated over Rs 800 Crore EB. In April 2023, just a month after they donated Rs 140 Cr , they got the Thane-Borivali twin tunnel project worth Rs 14,400 crore,” he claimed.

Jindal Steel and Power Corporation donated Rs. Mr. Ramesh claimed that they received Rs 25 crore EB on October 7, 2022, just three days after they won the Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine on October 10, 2022.

“Hafta Vasooli: The BJP’s Hafta Vasooli strategy is simple, to target through ED/CBI/IT raids and then seek hafta (“donations”) to protect the company. At least 14 of the top 30 donors were raided, ” he allegedly.

Ramesh said an investigation earlier this year found that companies were forced to donate to the BJP through election trusts following ED/CBI/IT raids.

He pointed out that many companies have donated through EB, such as Hetero Pharma and Yashoda Hospital.

“The IT department raided Shirdi Sai Electricals in December 2023 and donated Rs 40 crore through electoral bonds in January 2024,” the Congress leader claimed.

“Future Gaming & Hotels has donated over Rs 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 (April 7) they donate 100 Crore EB,” claimed Mr. Ramesh.

The IT department raided Future in October 2023 and in the same month they donated Rs. 65 crores in EB, he said.

Ramesh also claimed that the data also points to kickbacks as a pattern has emerged where corporates, after receiving some handouts from the central government, immediately repay the favor through electoral bonds.

“Vedanta acquired the Radhikapursi Private Coal Mine on March 3, 2021, and then in April 2021, they donated an electoral bond of Rs 25 crore,” he claimed.

“Megha Engineering & Infra was awarded the Zojila Tunnel project worth Rs 4,500 crore in August 2020 and then donated an electoral bond of Rs 20 crore in October 2020,” Ramesh said.

He also claimed that Megha was awarded the BKC bullet train station contract in December 2022 and donated Rs. 56 crore in the same month.

Ramesh claimed that the data also showed money laundering through shell companies.

“A huge problem with the electoral bonds scheme is that it removes the restriction of donating only a small portion of corporate profits, paving the way for shell companies to donate black money. There are many similar dubious cases like Rs. 410 crore is Donated by Qwik Supply Chain Limited, the entire equity capital of the company is only Rs 130 crore as per MoCA filings,” he said.

The congressional leader said another major problem is missing data.

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

“A total of Rs 2,500 crore of bonds are missing from the data. Where is the data for these missing bonds from March 2018 to April 2019? For example, in the first tranche, the BJP got 95% of the bonds . Funding. Who does the BJP want to protect?” he said.

“As analysis of electoral bond data continues, more such cases of corruption in the BJP will become clear,” Ramesh said. “We also continue to ask for unique bond ID numbers so that we can precisely match donors with Recipients are matched.”

Ramesh also claimed that data points to the phenomenon of kickbacks, where corporates, after receiving some handouts from the central government, immediately repay the favor through electoral bonds. From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and the lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services, were major buyers of now-defunct electoral bonds for political contributions.

State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized seller of electoral bonds, shared the data with the poll panel on March 12 following the Supreme Court’s directive.

The Supreme Court gave the Election Commission time until 5 pm on March 15 to upload the data on its website.

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

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)