Realty majors in news helped BRS become fourth highest recipient of electoral bonds

Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Hyderabad receives significant electoral bond donations from real estate companies, including MEIL and Aparna Farms.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has emerged as the fourth largest recipient of electoral bonds encashing ₹1,214.6 crore. While the ₹195 crore donation by the Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) is in the news, the real estate companies with interests in Hyderabad have been big donors relative to their size.

Two real estate companies that built parks on the foreshore of lakes in Hyderabad and a dozen other smaller companies that bought electoral bonds gave it to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi ruling the State then. Data released by the Election Commission of India, and supplied by State Bank of India, shows that realty majors such as Aparna, Raheja, NSL-SEZ, Rajapushpa, My Home, Prestige and other groups donated crores to the ruling dispensation in the State at a time when their properties were in the news.  

K. Raheja Corporation donated ₹18 crore directly while its wholly-owned subsidiary Inorbit Mall donated ₹5 crore. The group also donated ₹2 crore to the BJP and a crore to the Shiv Sena. The park and the cycling track built on the foreshore of Durgam Cheruvu has been developed by the realty company. Similarly, Aparna Farms and Estates LLP donated ₹15 crore to the BRS and another ₹15 crores to the Congress party which is ruling the State now. The park developed on reclaimed land of Malkam Cheruvu now bears the name of Aparna. 

The Rajapushpa group, which had purchased a 3.6 acre site of Kokapet Neopolis for a record ₹362.7 crore or about ₹100 crore per acre, donated ₹25 crore to the BRS through two entities: Rajapushpa Properties Private Limted and Rajapushpa Asset Management LLP.

One of the surprise donors is the Chennai Green Woods Private Limited that donated ₹50 crore to the BRS, ₹40 crore to TMC, and ₹15 crore to the Congress party. Chennai Green Woods director Rajesh Taraka Dasari has the same address as another real estate player, Ramky. Ramky also has the contract to process the waste produced in Hyderabad with Hyderabad Waste Management Project and is headed by one of the richest Members of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, Ayodhya Rami Reddy, who was nominated by the YSR Congress Party to the upper house.  

Another big realty player the My Home Infrastructure Private Limited gave ₹15 crore to the BRS, ₹5 crore to the BJP and ₹4.5 crore to the Congress party. However, another company called Aqua Space Developers Private Limited, which has Shyam Rao Jupally as a director in My Home Group, donated ₹15 crore to the BRS. Another entity called Tellapur Technocity Private Limited, which also lists Shyam Rao Jupally as a director gave ₹20 crore. 

In April 2023, IRB Infrastructure Developers bagged the 30-year lease for Toll Operate and Transfer (TOT) of Hyderabad Outer Ring Road for ₹7,380 crore. A few months later, IRB MP Expressway Private Limited, a part of the IRB Group, gave the BRS ₹25 crores during the July 2023 window.