Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw clarified on Monday that her company was not in the purchase of electoral bonds from JD(S) and it was rather done in a personal capacity.
Her total donation through electoral bonds amounted to Rs 6 crore,
Shaw took to X to clarify the issue, posting, "Would like to clarify that Biocon did not make any political donation to JD(S) or any other party for elections. At a personal level, I purchased electoral bonds which I donated to JD(S) and several parties. "
"My donations were nominal on the principle of funding election campaigns with white money," she added.
Replying to an X user who alleged that Shaw had donated Rs 5 crore monthly before the assembly polls in Karnataka last year, the Biocon chief dismissed the claims, asking the user to do the math.
Responding to another user who asked what she got in return, Shaw replied, "Nothing - I did it of my own free will. Have you followed BPAC? Don’t make such allegations. I have never ever made any contributions for favours. It’s very sad to see such comments.”
According to the data released by the Election Commission on Sunday, the JD(S) received bonds worth Rs 89.75 crore, including Rs 50 crore from Megha Engineering, the second-largest purchaser of electoral bonds.
This is part of the latest dataset released by the EC that included scanned copies of the disclosures made by political parties.
Following the disclosures, the Opposition parties have termed the electoral bonds as legalised corruption while the BJP claimed the scrapping of electoral bonds could lead to return of black money in politics.
