Rs 45 cr in bonds by infra firm founded by BJP MP, a hydropower project, and curious case of U-turns

Infrastructure firm Rithwik Projects Private Limited, and its founder and Rajya Sabha MP Chintakunta Munuswamy Ramesh, could be a study in coincidence.

In 2019, the MP had switched to the BJP from the Telugu Desam Party, just months after he was accused by the Income Tax department of siphoning off funds to the tune of Rs 74 crore in 2018. The defection, which had jolted the TDP, involved three other party MPs, came weeks after the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, and while TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu was in Europe.

Last year, just two weeks before Rithwik Projects purchased electoral bonds to the tune of Rs 5 crore, the Hyderabad-headquartered company was awarded a letter of contract for a hydroelectric power project in Congress-governed Himachal Pradesh on January 14.