Oppn seeks SC probe against BJP, freezing of party accounts

New Delhi: Opposition parties on Friday launched scathing criticism against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Central government over the contentious issue of electoral bonds. On Friday, leaders from various political factions denounced what they termed as a blatant assault on transparency and democratic principles.

The Congress, spearheading the opposition’s charge, demanded a high-level probe by the Supreme Court against the BJP and freezing of its bank accounts for alleged corruption in the electoral bonds scheme, as it claimed the party got 50 per cent of the money received through these bonds.

The Opposition party alleged that the electoral bonds data has exposed the “corrupt tactics” of the BJP such as “quid pro quo,” grant of “protection” to companies against donations, accepting “kickbacks,” and money laundering through shell companies.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge took a swipe at the BJP and said: “PM Modi says ‘Na khaunga, na khane doonga’, but it seems that he only meant ‘Sirf BJP ko khilaunga’”.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed the scrapped electoral bonds scheme brought in by the BJP-led Union government as the “biggest extortion racket in the world.”

The funds amassed through the scheme were used to split political parties and topple opposition governments, he alleged

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also hit back at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her reported remarks that the link between the ED/CBI/IT raids on firms and donations through electoral bonds were based on “assumptions,” saying: “We invite her to release the full data of who donated how much to which political party.”

“This is the biggest scam of independent India. We have the option to move the Supreme Court...We will go to the people’s court,” he said. The Congress also demanded unique bond ID numbers, so that matching between donors and recipients can be done. Congress treasurer Ajay Maken said, yesterday, when the list came, it totalled 22,217 bonds issued since 2018, but on the website, there were only 18,871 bonds.

“The details of 3,346 bonds are not available on the website; SBI has not provided them,” he said.

“Who are the people the Modi government is trying to shield? There should be an investigation. The investigation should link the IT and ED raids to these bonds. Most of the companies that donated through electoral bonds have either been raided by the IT or ED; they purchased bonds under pressure from the BJP,” Maken said.

“Two demands - Inquiry by the Supreme Court and immediate freezing of the BJP’s accounts,” he said in a post on X.

Congress leader P Chidambaram also said the scheme was devised to “legalise bribery” and ensure that the ruling party ends up as its biggest beneficiary.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party challenged the BJP to disclose the details of overall funds it got through these bonds, and accused it of receiving proceeds of crime from companies under probe by the ED. Delhi cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj asked if the BJP would accept receiving funds from companies that were attached by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with money laundering.

Senior RJD leader Manoj Jha alleged that the data on electoral bonds has proved that the ruling BJP at the Centre is “the most corrupt political party in the history” of the country.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) welcomes the further direction of the Supreme Court to the State Bank of India for making the alphanumeric code of electoral bonds available towards disclosure of contributor – recipient identity.

“Since the available data has been uploaded by the Election Commission on its website yesterday, efforts are on to analyse the data and it may take some time for the full impact to be understood. However, even the preliminary analysis shows instances of both quid pro quo and using agencies like the ED to forcibly extort funds from corporates through bonds,” it said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut accused the BJP of being a core beneficiary of the electoral bonds purchased by the gaming and gambling companies and termed it as the biggest scam.

Expressing concern over the case, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal asserted that the issue of electoral bonds would not be investigated by any probe agencies.

The Election Commission on Thursday published the data of electoral bonds bought between April 2019 and February 2024.

According to the data, the BJP received the highest contributions, Rs 6,566 crore or 54.77 per cent, followed by the Congress, which received Rs 1,123 crore or 9.37 per cent, and the Trinamool Congress, which got Rs 1,092 crore or 9.11 per cent.