Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) – the second-highest donor of electoral bonds – donated Rs 584 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) between April 2019 and October 2023. This makes the Telangana-based company the BJP's single-largest donor.
Companies linked to MEIL – Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited and SEPC Power – also made donations to the BJP to the tune of Rs 85 crore, taking the group's total donation to the party to Rs 669 crore.
This was revealed after the State Bank of India (SBI) submitted the remaining electoral bond details – including the alphanumeric numbers or the bond numbers – on Thursday, 21 March, as per the Supreme Court's order.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana received electoral bond donations to the tune of Rs 195 crore from MEIL. Other parties that MEIL donated to include the Dravida Munnetra Kazahgam (Rs 85 crore), YSR Congress Party (Rs 37 crore), Telugu Desam Party (Rs 28 crore), All India Congress Committee (Rs 18 crore), Bihar Pradesh Janta Dal (United) (Rs 10 crore), Janata Dal (Secular) (Rs 5 crore), and Jana Sena Party (Rs 4 crore).
Popularly known as Megha, MEIL had singularly purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 966 crore between 2019 and 2023. Latest data shows more than half of it went to the BJP.
When Did MEIL Donate to Parties?
Founded as Megha Engineering Enterprises in 1989 by Pamireddy Pitchi Reddy – a Hyderabad-based industrialist – MEIL is a leading player in the power and infrastructural sectors.
The company donated Rs 125 crore to the BJP from 12 April 2019 to 3 October 2019. Later in October 2019, the Income Tax Department had raided MEIL's offices across 15 locations in Hyderabad as well as Delhi and Mumbai.
The next year, in August, MEIL had bagged a Rs 4,509 crore tunneling contract for the prestigious Zojila project in Jammu & Kashmir.
In 2020, MEIL made only two sets of donations worth Rs 10 crore each to a single party – and that was the DMK. The company has had several projects in Tamil Nadu, including a 525 MW thermal plant at Thoothukudi.
In October 2021, the company made Rs 100 crore worth of donations to the BRS, which was the ruling party in Telangana at the time. It should be noted that MEIL was awarded the contract for the construction of the Kaleswaram List Irrigation Project, a flagship scheme of the then BRS government. The Opposition in Telangana had accused MEIL of "being close to the BRS," with many alleging large-scale corruption in the Kaleshwaram Project.
The company also constructed the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project in record time in Andhra Pradesh. MEIL has large power projects in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. The company made donations to the YSRCP, the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, in 2022 and 2023.
Between January 2022 and January 2023, MEIL donated more than Rs 160 crore to the BJP.
In April 2023, MEIL beat Larsen & Toubro to bag two separate packages to build the ambitious Thane-Borivali twin tunnel project in Mumbai for a total bid of Rs 14,400 crore. MEIL donated electoral bonds worth over Rs 100 crore to the BJP that month.
Months before the Telangana Assembly elections in November 2023, the party donated Rs 50 crore to the BRS in July.
However, closer to the polls, it made massive donations to the BJP amounting to Rs 150 crore.
In June 2023, MEIL bagged a Rs 500 crore order from the defence ministry.
In March 2022, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road and Highways, had praised MEIL in the parliament, regarding its construction of the Zoji-la Tunnel near the Himalayas. "The estimated cost (to make the tunnel was Rs 12,000 crore. And I am happy to tell you, the company which won the contract...is a company in Hyderabad, Megha Engineering, and through this one job our government saved Rs 5,000 crore," Gadkari said, amid applause from the parliamentarians.
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