BJP made ‘bribes’ legal via electoral bonds: Congress

March 23, 2024 08:14 pm | Updated March 24, 2024 08:52 am IST - NEW DELHI Alleging that the electoral bond scheme ensured that “prepaid, postpaid, and post-raid bribes” could be routed through regular banking channels, the Congress on March 23 reiterated its demand for a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the scheme. Addressing a press conference at party headquarters, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that an analysis of recently published State Bank of India data has revealed that 38 corporate groups received 179 government contracts and projects worth ₹3.8 lakh crore after donating electoral bonds to the BJP. Under the ‘post-paid’ category, the Congress leader alleged that ₹62,000 crore worth of projects were given by the Union government or BJP State governments; within three months of approvals or contracts being signed, ₹580 crore was received via electoral bonds from these companies. “The Modi government can patent hafta vasooli,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding, “We have assembled a complete, verified database of hundreds of contracts, project clearances, ED/IT/CBI raids, and shell companies, all carefully mapped to the database of the BJP’s electoral bond donors.” Watchlisted shell firms He also alleged that 16 shell companies donated ₹419 crore to the BJP, out of the ₹543 crore donated by shell companies in total. “These included companies on a Finance Ministry high-risk watch list for money laundering, companies donating crores within months of their formation, and companies donating many multiples of their paid-up share capital,” Mr. Ramesh said.