'Not single project without e-tender': Nitin Gadkari on electoral bonds from infra firms to BJP

Amid the Opposition's charge of favoritism to infra firms that donated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through electoral bonds, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said he cleared projects worth Rs 50 lakh crore in the last 10 years, and not one was done without an e-tender.

"We have not done even a single work without an e-tender. Even if one person says that he had to pay money for the work, I am ready to face the punishment," Gadkari said while speaking at News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2024. 

The minister said this when asked whether there was a coincidence that many infrastructure firms donated to the BJP through electoral bonds (EBs), whose details were recently made public by the Election Commission. "We are completely transparent, corruption-free, and time-bound...and have worked with quality commitment. We have not done anything wrong," Gadkari said.    

After the details of electoral bonds were put out, Congress communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh said there were many cases of companies that had donated electoral bonds, and immediately afterwards gotten huge benefits from the government. 

"Megha Engineering and Infra has given over Rs 800 crores in EBs. In April 2023, they donated Rs. 140 crores, and just one month later, they were awarded the Rs 14,400 crore Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel Project," he said in a tweet. "Jindal Steel & Power gave Rs 25 crores in EBs on 7 October 2022, and just 3 days later, they won the Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine, on 10th October 2022." 

Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure (MEIL), which bagged the prestigious Zojila tunnel deal, was the second largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds. Megha Engineering bought a total of Rs 966 crore worth of bonds between financial years 2019-20 and 2023-24 - the period when it won the project to build an all-weather road tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020 as well as licenses to retail CNG and piped cooking gas in some cities.

Megha Engineering also donated Rs 50 crore to the Janata Dal (Secular) and Rs 105 crore to the DMK of MK Stalin. As per details shared by JDS, nearly 56 per cent of its donations came from MEIL. 

(With inputs from PTI)