Hyderabad-based infra major and a lottery company from Coimbatore: Meet the biggest political donors

Supreme Court hears election commission's plea in electoral bonds case

Among the top buyers of electoral bonds are a Hyderabad-based infrastructure company and a Coimbatore-based lottery and gaming firm. Both entities purchased a combined Rs 2,348 crore worth of electoral bonds between 2019 and 2024, according to the data released  by the Election Commission on March 14.

As per the details, Hyderabad-based infrastructure company Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) contributed Rs 980 crores through bonds purchased between April 2019 and November 2023.

Who Owns MEIL?

MEIL is promoted by Pitchi Reddy Pamireddy, Rama Reddy Pamireddy, and other Hyderabad-based industrialists. In May 2023, Moneycontrol reported citing top officials that MEIL managed to pip engineering major Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) and bagged two separate packages to build the ambitious Thane-Borivali twin tunnel project in Mumbai for a total bid of Rs 14,400 crore. As per reports, MEIL ventured into the media industry in August 2018 with a major stake in the TV9 network.

This is a company reportedly under the lens of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) scam. According to a Deccan Chronicle report which cited the draft performance audit report on KLIS by the CAG, the company was paid an excess of Rs 5,188.43 crore in just four packages, involving the supply and commissioning of pumps, motors and auxiliary equipment.

The CAG probe into the KLIS also found that substantial amounts of the increased project cost were pocketed by the contractors, more particularly MEIL, as per reports.

A Lottery Company

Yet another top donor is lottery company Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Ltd, contributed Rs 1,368 crores through electoral bonds between 2019 and 2023. Founded in December 1991, Future Gaming And Hotel Services Private Limited was registered in Coimbatore by Santiago Martin. The company was in the news on multiple occasions for legal violations and investigations by different agencies for financial irregularities.

This firm was charged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged money laundering activities. On April 2, 2022, India Today reported that the ED has attached assets worth Rs 409.92 crore in a money laundering case against lottery company Future Gaming and its various sub-distributors.

As per the report, ED has alleged that Future Gaming, its various sub-distributors, and area-distributors criminally conspired together and illegally retained unsold lottery tickets and claimed top prizes on such unsold tickets in the pre-GST period till 2017.

Emails sent to MEIL and Future Gaming didn’t elicit any response till the time of filing this story.

Electoral Bond Details

The Election Commission on March 14 released the data on electoral bonds, complying with the Supreme Court's directions, two days after the State Bank of India (SBI) shared the data with the poll panel on March 12.

According to data shared by SBI, a total of 22,217 electoral bonds (EBs) were purchased during the April 1, 2019 and February 15, 2024 period. As many as 3,346 bonds were purchased between April 1 and 11, 2019 and of these, 1,609 were redeemed. Another 18,871 bonds were purchased between April 12, 2019 and February 15, 2024 and 20,421 redeemed during the period. Of the total 22,217 bonds purchased, 22,030 were redeemed. Bonds have to be redeemed within 15 days of issuance.

The poll panel has published the details on 'Disclosure of Electoral Bonds submitted by SBI' in two parts. The first part contains the list of political parties along with the amount they have received. The second contains the names of all the companies who have purchased the bonds. However, the data does not show any link between the donor and the recipients.

The exhaustive list published by EC contains the names of several prominent companies and business groups. Other companies in the list of donors include Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Vedanta Ltd, Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun and Sun Pharma.

And the Political Parties..

The parties that redeemed electoral bonds include the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party, according to the data. The parties that redeemed electoral bonds include the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and the Samajwadi Party, according to the data.

It was given a deadline of March 15 to publish the data.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has filed an application for the modification of SC order in the electoral bonds case, seeking that data submitted to the court be returned to the poll body as the EC has not maintained copies of the same.

On Wednesday, the State Bank of India had submitted a compliance affidavit before the Supreme Court, stating that it has provided the Election Commission with comprehensive details regarding the electoral bonds scheme.

On February 15, 2024, a five-judge Constitution bench in a landmark ruling had scrapped Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients.