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Owaisi takes dig at BJP, other parties over electoral bonds: ‘AIMIM didn’t raise a single penny…’
“AIMIM didn’t raise a single penny” through such means "but they all call Asaduddin Owaisi as BJP’s B-team,” he said.
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday hit out at the Opposition parties including the BJP on the money redeemed by them in the form of electoral bonds. He said almost every political party got money in the form of such bonds but AIMIM didn’t raise a "single penny” through such means “but they all call Asaduddin Owaisi as BJP’s B-team”.
Addressing a gathering, Owaisi said, “Be it BJP, TMC, Congress, BRS, DMK, BJD, Samajwadi Party, YSRCP, Shiv Sena or others, almost every political party got money in the form of electoral bonds; BJP alone got more than ₹6,000 crore. Our party AIMIM didn’t raise a single penny, but they all call Asaduddin Owaisi as BJP’s B-team.”
In the latest data published by the Election Commission on its website in connection with the electoral bonds scheme, it was revealed that the Bharatiya Janata Party encashed bonds worth ₹6,060 crore from April 12, 2019, to January 24, 2024. This was followed by the Trinamool Congress which encashed bonds worth ₹1,609 crore. The Congress party stood at the third position with ₹1,422 crore followed by the BRS, BJD and DMK which encashed ₹1,214 crore, ₹775 crore and ₹639 crore respectively.
Top donors
Companies that made top donations include Future Gaming and Hotel Services ( ₹1,208 crore), Telangana-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd ( ₹1,186 crore including ₹220 crore worth of bonds bought by its subsidiary Wester Up Power Transmission), Qwik Supply Chain ( ₹410 crore); Vedanta ( ₹400.7 crore) and Haldia Energy ( ₹377 crore).
Other major donors include steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, industrialist BK Goenka, Jainendra Shah and one person going by only the first name of Monika.
Introduced in 2018, electoral bonds (EBs) were purchasable at any SBI branch in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore, requiring a KYC-compliant account for acquisition. There was no restriction on the quantity of electoral bonds that individuals or corporations could procure. Contributions made via this program, including those from corporate and foreign entities through Indian subsidiaries, were eligible for complete tax exemption.
But on February 15, a five-judge constitution bench struck down the scheme, declaring it to be “unconstitutional” and directed SBI – the only designated EB-issuing bank – to stop the issuance of EBs, adding that the bank should submit details of EBs purchased since April 12, 2019, till that date to the EC.
(With inputs from PTI)
