Shillong: Star Cement, the fastest-growing cement brand of Eastern India, during the Lok Sabha election in 2019, had put lion’s share of its financial stake on Congress, and satisfied the BJP with a paltry amount.
It has come to fore that the Star Cement Meghalaya Ltd, which has its registered headquarters at Lumshnong in East Jaintia hills district of Meghalaya, bought 14 Electoral Bonds on April 20, 2019.
Interestingly, the Meghalaya-based cement company purchased the 14 Electoral Bonds worth ₹5 crore nine days after the first phase of Lok Sabha elections were completed.
While pre-election analysis had predicted that Narendra Modi was coming back to power in 2019, it was surprising to find that Star Cement Meghalaya Limited put the bigger bet on Congress, and not on the BJP.
Of the ₹5 crore worth of Electoral Bond which the Star Cement Meghalaya Limited purchased, ₹4.5 crore was given to the Congress, and only ₹50 lakhs was given to the BJP.
It has been reported that the Congress redeemed the bonds on April 22 and 23, while the BJP encashed the bond on April 23.
Star Cement is powered by three cement plants located in Lumshnong (in Meghalaya), Sonapur (in Assam) and Mohitnagar (in North Bengal) and is one of the largest manufacturers of cement in Eastern India.
Star Cement is fast-tracking its expansion plans in both greenfield and brownfield projects, so that the total capacity reaches 9.7 million tonnes per year by 2025-26.
Though some of the promoters of Star Cement are reportedly close to some of the top BJP leaders of Northeast India, especially Assam, it is still not known as to why cement manufacturer choose the Congress over BJP in 2019.
Apparently, some BJP leaders are not happy with the Star Cement’s massive growth in Northeast India.
In the month of September last year, Assam BJP legislator Atul Bora slammed the Star Cement management for destroying vast expanse of forest lands in his constituency.
Demanding the removal of Star Cement factory from Sonapur, the legislator urged the government to take up conservation work after plantation of trees as huge heap of sand, dust has accumulated in the forest land.
Northeast News tried to speak to Star Cement CEO Vineet Kumar Tiwari on the issue of distribution of the Electoral Bonds in 90:10 ratio. But, he was not available for comments.
An email has been addressed to the CEO of Star Cement, and has been sent. This report will be updated once we get to hear something from the CEO of Star Cement.
