BJP misused central agencies to garner Rs 400 crore through electoral bonds: Cong

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday alleged that the BJP has misused central agencies like ED and CBI to garner Rs 400 crore through electoral bonds from 45 companies after raids on them and demanded that it should come out with a white paper on its finances if it cared about democracy.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge cited media reports saying fresh investigations have revealed that 15 more companies donated to the BJP after raids were conducted on them by central probe agencies.

"Was it blackmail, extortion, loot and coercion to get more donations?? A fresh investigation shows 15 more companies, donated to BJP after ED, CBI, IT raids, making it a total of 45 companies paying BJP nearly Rs 400 crore," Kharg alleged in a post on X.

"According to reports, 4 shell companies also funded BJP. Dictatorial Modi Government has frozen Congress party's bank accounts, while it extracts money by using Central agencies," he also alleged.

The Congress chief claimed that the BJP used "unconstitutional and illegal electoral bonds to pad its "loot chest", and has also "manipulated" Electoral Trusts to "increase its donation loot" by 10 times.

"If BJP is bothered about 'Mother of Democracy', then it should bring a white paper on its own finances, through an independent investigation," Kharge demanded.

He cited some media reports that claimed that 15 more donors of the BJP include four shell firms, 11 companies that faced central action and that 30 firms who donated Rs 335 crore to the BJP were also stung by I-T, ED.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday announced sharing details of electoral bonds "in time" and asserted that the commission believed in complete transparency.

Kumar, , who ended his nationwide visits ahead of the Lok Sabha election schedule announcement, also said that the poll body was ready to hold assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections in the Union territory.

The State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased by donors between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties.

In a compliance affidavit filed in the apex court, the SBI said as per the court's direction, it has made available the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India before the close of business hours on March 12.

It said details, including date of purchase of each electoral bonds, names of the purchaser and the denomination of the bonds purchased have been furnished.

The affidavit, filed by SBI's chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, said the bank has also furnished to the EC details like date of encashment of the electoral bonds, the names of political parties which received the contributions and the denominations of the bonds.

"A total number of 22,217 bonds were purchased during the period April 1, 2019 till February 15, 2024. At the time of collating the information for the ECI, the details were segregated as below...," it said.

Inputs from PTI