According to the electoral bond data submitted by the State Bank of India on the orders of the Supreme Court on Thursday, March 21, Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd. (MEIL) was the biggest donor for the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) while Vedanta Ltd. was the biggest donor of electoral bonds for the Congress.
The data further revealed that the Congress party encashed Rs 1,422 crore in total, of which Vedanta Limited contributed RS 125 crore, followed by Rs 110 crore that came from Western UP Power Transmission Company limited, a subsidiary of MEIL, and Rs 91.6 crore from MKJ Enterprises.
Similarly, K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi encashed Rs 1,214 crore in total, of which Rs 195 crore came from MEIL, Rs 94 crore from Yashodha Super Speciality Hospital, and Rs 50 crore from Chennai Green Woods Private Limited.
BJP singled out for criticism over electoral bonds
Interestingly, Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, who hosted the anti-Hindu Delhi riots conspiracy meeting, had recently tried to mislead people by spreading fake news that Megha Engineering, the second-largest purchaser of electoral bonds, contributed the maximum to the BJP in return for the huge infrastructure contracts.
In an X post on 14th March 2024, Bhushan wrote, “On 11 April 23, Megha Engineering gives 100s Crs in Electoral Bonds to whom? But within a month it gets a 14,400 cr contract from BJP’s govt! Though SBI has hidden Bond numbers from the info, some of the donors’ & parties’ matches can be guessed. Most donations seem a quid pro quo.”
He stated that the BJP was illegally taking ‘bribes’ in the form of electoral bonds from the Megha Engineering Company and giving them huge infrastructural contracts in return.
Leftist ecosystem alleges Megha Engineering which made largest donation to BRS, siphoned off money to Congress and DMK, has ‘quid pro quo’ ties to BJP
OpIndia then detailed how BRS is the fourth largest beneficiary of the electoral bond scheme after the BJP, TMC, and the Congress. We also showed how Megha Krishna Reddy, who runs Megha Engineering is known to be close to the Bharat Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), information conveniently withheld by Prashant Bhushan and coterie to suit their precise agenda.
MIEL not only donated the biggest sum to KC Rao’s BRS but also donated cash amounting to more than Rs 100 crore to the Congress party in 2019. Additionally, the company donated to DMK, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), JD(S) and YSRCP.
Meanwhile, the electoral bond data submitted by the State Bank of India also disclosed the amounts received by other regional parties and the BJP, the largest national party.
Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming and Hotel Services contributed Rs 542 crore, or 33.7% of all donations made to the All India Trinamool Congress, which encashed Rs 1,609.50 crore through this technique. Haldia Energy Limited accounted for 17.5% of all donations received by the Trinamool Congress, or Rs 281 crore, making it the second-largest donor.
With Rs 174.5 crore from Essel Mining, Rs 100 crore from Jindal Steel and Power Limited, and Rs 70 crore from Utkal Alumina International Limited, the Biju Janata Dal has encashed a total of Rs 775 crore.
Additionally, the statistics revealed that MEIL contributed Rs 584 crore to the BJP, or 9% of its overall donations. Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited contributed Rs 375 crore, or 6% of the total funds. In the same vein, the party also received significant donations from Vedanta Limited (Rs 229 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 197.4 crore).
Ever since the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India to publish all the details of donors and political parties that received donations via electoral bonds, the Bharatiya Janata Party became the apparent target for propagandists, opposition parties and certain sections of the media. This particular segment went at BJP hammer and tongs, calling them out for being the biggest recipients of these bonds.
Here, however, it is important to understand that BJP is the biggest national party, while the other parties that have received donations via electoral bonds are mostly state-level parties, or are national parties that are confined to one or a handful of states.
The BJP’s critics deliberately overlooked the obvious fact that, naturally, BJP gets maximum donations, considering the national ruling party is at the centre and more than a dozen other states. Interestingly, regional parties which are ruling a single state, such as the DMK and Trinamool Congress, were able to raise over a thousand crore in electoral bond donations between them. Congress got less funding than TMC for the past two years while having a bigger influence on state and national politics.
TMC’s Mahua Moitra whines about BJP getting donations through electoral bonds, ignores her party TMC getting Rs 1609 crores with just one state government
For example, All India Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra became the torchbearer of this narrative being spun against the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. She claimed that “55% of the total bonds” were received by the BJP and that the Centre was using national agencies to its benefit.
However, Moitra forgot to mention that the party to which she belongs, the All India Trinamool Congress is the second largest beneficiary with Rs 1,609 crore, followed by Congress (Rs 1,422 crore) and BRS (Rs 1,215 crore). The party that is in power in just one state has managed to benefit to the extent of Rs 1,610 crores which accounts for 13% of the total amount.
In fact, after Mahua Moitra’s shenanigans over the donation received by BJP through electoral bonds several Netizens took to X to clear her air. They stated that the BJP is at present ruling several Indian states and is also at the Centre which reasonably justifies the benefit it has availed via the electoral bonds. However, they pondered how TMC, a regional party that is in power in just one state managed to benefit to this extent, surpassing the Indian National Congress (Rs 1,422 crore) and BRS (Rs 1,215 crore).
