Electoral bonds data proves BJP's 'hafta vasooli ' strategy : Congress

Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh on Friday alleged that the electoral bonds data revealed a day before has exposed "corrupt tactics" of the BJP such as quid pro quo, seeking donations for the company's protection, kickbacks and money laundering through shell companies.

Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh also said the party continues to demand unique bond ID numbers, so that it can precisely match donors to recipients.

"The BJP's Hafta Vasooli strategy is simple 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," Ramesh alleged.

The Election Commission of India (ECI), on March 14, uploaded the data of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations on its website as per the orders of the Supreme Court (SC). In compliance with the SC order, the SBI handed over the electoral bonds data to the election body earlier this week

Also Read : Electoral Bond Case: Here's what the SC told SBI about unique number

From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.

Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India (SBI), which was the authorised seller of electoral bonds, shared the data with the poll panel on March 12.

The top court had given the Election Commission time till 5 pm on March 15 to upload the data on its website.

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

The Congress leader said another major issue is missing data. 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?" he said.