MEIL that won Zojila tunnel contract donated `586 cr to BJP

New Delhi: Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, the second-biggest buyer of electoral bonds, donated the highest amount of about Rs 586 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to data released by the Election Commission on Thursday.

The firm, which in recent years won the prestigious Zojila tunnel deal among other projects, forayed into city gas and acquired a media group, purchased electoral bonds of Rs 966 crore in total.

It has also donated to the Bharat Rashtra Samiti, which till recently was the ruling party in Telangana.

The BRS, formerly known as Telangana Rashtra Samiti, got Rs 195 crore as donations from the company.

Megha donated bonds worth Rs 85 crore to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, and Rs 37 crore to the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh.

The Telugu Desam Party got about Rs 25 crore from the company, while the Congress got Rs 17 crore.

The Janata Dal-Secular, Jana Sena Party and the Janata Dal-United got smaller sums ranging from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore.

Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) bought a total of Rs 966 crore worth of bonds between the financial years 2019-20 and 2023-24.

It won the project to build an all-weather road tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020 as well as licences to retail CNG and piped cooking gas in some cities.

The unlisted private firm was founded in 1989 by industrialist Pamireddy Pitchi Reddy as Megha Engineering Enterprises, manufacturing pipes for municipalities.

It changed its name to Megha Engineering and Infrastructure in 2006 and went on to execute big infrastructure projects like dams, natural gas distribution networks, power plants and roads.