The Congress on Friday alleged that the electoral bond scheme was designed to favour the ruling party and demanded a transparent system of electoral funding.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said more than 52 per cent of the BJP's political donations of Rs 5,271.97 crore between FY 2016-17 and FY 2021-22 came from electoral bonds as against Rs 1,783.93 crore received by all other national parties according to a new report by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

''This effectively implies that the Modi government's controversial, corrupt and contrived electoral bonds scheme is a money whitening scheme, which converts black money to white,'' he told a press conference. ''Cash, crony capitalism and corruption is the new 'chal, charitr and chehra' of the BJP,'' Khera alleged.

The Congress has been opposing the electoral bond scheme and alleging that it has brought opacity in electoral funding.

The electoral bond scheme was introduced through a money bill in January 2017 for the purpose of electoral funding and was passed in Parliament without the Rajya Sabha having the power to reject or amend it.

''This was an assault on the spirit of the Constitution,'' Khera alleged.

According to the amendments brought through the Act, political parties are not required to mention names and addresses of those contributing by way of electoral bonds. This had made electoral funding even more opaque, the Congress has alleged.

The electoral bonds scheme has since been challenged in the Supreme Court by several people including ADR and some others, but the apex court is yet to give a final view on the matter.