The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): The Congress party has made a strong demand for a Supreme Court probe against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the electoral bonds scheme, and has called for the freezing of the BJP’s bank accounts.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has alleged that the data released on the electoral bonds scheme has exposed the “corrupt tactics” of the BJP, including “quid pro quo,” grant of “protection” to companies against donations, accepting “kickbacks,” and money laundering through shell companies.
Kharge said the data shows the BJP received nearly 50% of the total electoral bonds money, while the Congress party received only 11%. He has demanded the “highest level of enquiry by the Supreme Court to investigate this saga of corruption by the BJP.”
The Congress leader also pointed out that while the party’s bank accounts were frozen, no action has been taken against the BJP, which he claims has “illegally acquired” hundreds of crores of money. Kharge has therefore demanded that the BJP’s bank accounts be frozen with immediate effect.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has also hit back at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s remarks, calling them “assumptions,” and has invited her to release the full data on who donated how much to which political party.
The Congress party has alleged that the electoral bonds data exposes at least four corrupt tactics of the BJP, including “quid pro quo,” “hafta vasooli” (extortion), kickbacks, and money laundering through shell companies.
The party has demanded the unique bond ID numbers, so that it can precisely match donors to recipients, and has claimed that the data shows a clear pattern of companies receiving government benefits immediately after donating to the BJP through electoral bonds.
The Congress’s aggressive stance comes just weeks before India’s next general election, highlighting the ongoing political tensions and allegations of corruption in the country’s electoral funding system.