Following an extensive campaign against the perceived favors granted to Kadapa-based Shirdi Sai Electricals Ltd (SSEL) by the YSRC government in Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has accepted Rs 40 crore worth of electoral bonds from the company.
According to data from the Election Commission of India, the TDP redeemed Rs 40 crore worth of bonds on January 11 this year in a single transaction.
Earlier, the party had levelled serious accusations that the company was a benami of Y.S. Avinash Reddy, Kadapa YSRC MP and close relative of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
TDP senior leader Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy had filed a public interest litigation questioning the government's decision to award the firm a contract to install smart electricity meters.
Interestingly, out of the Rs 214 crore earned by the TDP through bonds, Shirdi Sai Electricals emerged as the second highest contributor, following Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited with Rs 28 crore and its group company Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited with Rs 20 crore.
Natco Pharma contributed Rs 14 crore to the TDP through bonds, while Bharat Biotech and Dr. Reddy's contributed Rs 10 crore each.
Rithwik Projects, owned by former TDP MP C.M. Ramesh who later switched to the BJP, purchased Rs 5 crore worth of bonds, while Future Gaming, the largest contributor to the arch rival YSRC with Rs 154 crore, contributed just Rs 1 crore to the TDP.
Since 2021, the TDP has targeted SSEL, holding a series of press conferences addressed by party spokesman Anam Venkata Ramana Reddy and Chandramohan Reddy, alleging that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government had overpaid the company by 300% for the purchase of transformers.
The party also claimed that the company had quoted Rs 36,000 per agricultural connection to install and maintain meters, whereas the cost in Rajasthan was only Rs 7,945.
In June 2021, another senior leader, K. Kala Venkata Rao, alleged a Rs 1.2 lakh-crore scam in a tender for solar power projects awarded to SSEL.
Later, in October 2023, the TDP demanded a CBI probe into the YSRC government's decision to waive a penalty of Rs 178 crore imposed by the TDP government on SSEL for supplying substandard transformers.