The disclosure of all the details of the electoral bonds by the State Bank of India to the Election Commission of India at the directions of the Supreme Court has revealed that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) led by former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao resorted to quid pro quo deals to get huge funds from companies.
Reports appearing in the media based on the analysis of electoral bonds indicate that KCR has received huge funds from at least two companies, within days of his government awarded them contracts, granted clearances and gave them concessions.
While the BJP received huge funds through electoral bonds from companies after threatening them with CBI, I-T and ED raids, the previous BRS government chose the other way of granting favours to the companies and in return, taking money from them.
Take the case of Mumbai-based IRB MP Expressway Pvt Ltd. On 1 April 2023, the company announced that it had bagged the 158 km Hyderabad Outer Ring Road (ORR) contract on a toll-operate-transfer basis for 30 years. The KCR government awarded contract to the company for Rs 7,380 crore and the contract came into operation in August 2023.
Between the time it bagged the contract and commenced tolling, IRB bought 25 bonds worth Rs 1 crore each on 4 July and gave them to the BRS, which encashed all the bonds on July 13.
The Congress party then alleged that it was a big scam, as the government would have got double the amount through toll tax in the 30-year period, had it not been given to the private contractor. After coming to power, the Revanth Reddy government ordered a comprehensive inquiry into the project’s award.
Similarly, the Kerala-based Kitex Group gave electoral bonds worth Rs 25 crore to the BRS between July and October, as a quid pro quo deal of getting favours from the KCR government for setting up a Rs 3,500 crore textile plants in Warangal and Rangareddy districts.
The KCR government allotted Kitex 200 acres of land in Warangal.at the rate of Rs 10 lakh per acre, as against the market value of Rs 50 lakh per acre.
More such skeletons are expected to tumble out of the BRS cupboard soon, sources said.