As India’s infrastructure capital outlay witnesses steady rise in recent years, firms in the cement, mining, capital goods and infrastructure segments have emerged as big political donors, the electoral bonds data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday shows.

In the donors’ list, the combined cement sector donated at least Rs 233 crore, with lesser known Rashmi Cement making one of the largest contributions in this sector at Rs 63.5 crore.

Industry leaders such as UltraTech Cement donated Rs 35 crore, in two tranches. According to West Bengal-based Rashmi Group’s official website, it operates a modest capacity of one million tonnes per annum.

In mining and metals, industry leaders Anil Agarwal promoted Vedanta Ltd and Aditya Birla Group (through subsidiaries or related entities) also figure amongst the top 10 donors. An email query sent to the conglomerates- Vedanta and Aditya Birla Group, on Friday remained unanswered at the time of going to press.

Megha Engineering and Infrastructure donated Rs 966 crore, according to the data, making it the second-largest donor value-wise on the list.

The Hyderabad-headquartered infrastructure company lists marquee projects such as the Zojila Tunnel, the Char Dham Tunnel, and Maharashtra Samruddhi Marg as those it is associated with.

According to a CRISIL Ratings report, dated January 10, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure’s revenue is estimated to increase to Rs 35,000 crore this financial year. It noted a strong order book position of Rs 1.87 trillion as on September, 2023.

Listed entities — KEC International and Welspun group entities — also feature on this list. Infrastructure companies involved in large projects feature prominently in the donor list released by the Election Commission. IRB Infrastructure Developers, between 2019 and 2023, purchased bonds worth Rs 84 crore through its three subsidiaries — IRB MP Expressway, Modern Road Makers, and Ideal Road Builders.

Among those bidding for and building these infrastructure projects in the country, the donations made were relatively smaller.

Multiple engineering and capital goods firms on the list are executing metro rail and other infrastructure projects in the country.

Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Company, which built the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand that collapsed late last year, also purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 55 crore between 2019 and 2022.

In October 2018, the company’s premises were reportedly raided by officials for alleged tax evasion.

The company, which has undertaken several large projects like the 

Dhola-Sadia Bridge and the Krishnapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh, bought Rs 45 crore worth of bonds in 2019 and Rs 10 crore bonds in 2022.

Welspun Group, through its various subsidiaries, bought electoral bonds worth Rs 55 crore between 2019 and 2022. Of these, Rs 38 crore worth of bonds were purchased in 2022. An email sent to Welspun remained unanswered at the time of writing this story.

Meanwhile, southern construction major Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 60 crore, according to ECI data. Rs 20 crore worth of bonds were bought by the developer in October 2019, while it donated Rs 40 crore through electoral bonds in October 2022. An employee of the construction firm was arrested by CBI in a graft case in May 2019.

Among green energy companies, Hyderabad-based Greenko Holdings, through its various companies, had bought electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore during 2022-23. The company is building what it claims is the world’s largest pumped hydro power project in Andhra Pradesh.

Shirdi Sai, another Andhra company, purchased bonds worth Rs 40 crore in January 2024. The company is one of the winners of the solar PLI scheme launched last year.

Another company that bought bonds recently in January is Genus Power, which is into smart meter manufacturing. The company has bought bonds worth Rs 30 crore.

First Published: Mar 16 2024 | 12:11 AM IST