Reliance-linked firm Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited donated a total of Rs 375 crore to the BJP over a period of two years, confirms the unique bond number data published by the Election Commission of India on Thursday, 21 March.
The State Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday submitted this data to the ECI, in the form of two lists—one being the list of political parties and the money they encashed, the other being the list of companies and the electoral bonds they donated. The Quint studied both these lists closely and found that Qwik Supply Chain donated crores of rupees to BJP a total of three times, each time before a state election.
The firm donated 200 bonds worth Rs 1 crore each (a total of Rs 200 crore) to the BJP on 5 January 2022, which was encashed by the party on 10 January 2022. This was exactly two months before the state elections in 5 states, including Uttar Pradesh. The Quint had earlier reported how this is the highest sum donated by any company on one single day.
The second time Qwik Supply Chain donated 125 bonds worth Rs 1 crore each (a total of Rs 125 crore) to the BJP on 11 November 2022, one month before the December 2022 assembly elections. The third time the firm donated to the BJP was a year later in November 2023, again before elections in 5 states. This donation was of 50 bonds worth Rs 1 crore each (a total of Rs 50 crore).
Earlier in the week, The Quint was able to make this assessment that it was the reliance linked firm which donated these sums to BJP by tallying the data of the political parties and the companies. Now, with the unique bond numbers out, this assessment has been confirmed.
Besides BJP, Qwik Donated To Shiv Sena and NCP
Besides the BJP, the reliance-linked Qwik Supply Chain, which is based out of Mumbai, donated to two other parties via electoral bonds. This includes the Shiv Sena and the National Congress Party. The firm donated Rs 25 crore to the Shiv Sena on 5 January 2022, the same day it donated Rs 200 crore to the BJP. This was back when Shiv Sena had not split into two, and was in the ruling alliance with Congress and NCP.
The firm also donated Rs 10 crore to the NCP, ten days later, on 10 January 2022.
The firm donated a total of Rs 410 crore via electoral bonds, which means over 90 per cent of its donations went to the BJP.
Qwik Supply Chain, which is a manufacturer of warehouses and storage units, has three directors – Tapas Mitra, Vipun Pranlal Mehta, and Sridhar Titti –- and one key management personnel, Anushree Bhargava. The longest-serving director is Tapas Mitra who was appointed on November 17, 2014 and has directorships in 25 other companies, including Reliance Eros Productions LLP, Reliance Tankages Private Limited, Reliance Group Support Service Private Limited, Reliance Fire Brigade Service Private Limited, Jamnagar Kandla Pipeline Company and several others. Some of these firms further share addresses with other Reliance firms-- Reliance Paging Private Limited, Jamnagar Ratlam Pipeline Private Limited, Reliance Tankages Private Limited and Reliance Oil and Petroleum Private Limited.
The Qwik Supply Chain’s registered address is at Navi Mumbai’s Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC).
Last week, in response to news agency PTI, Reliance had said: "Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd is not a subsidiary of any Reliance entity.”
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