While the Opposition, particularly the Congress, described the electoral bonds as  "legalised extortion" by the ruling dispensation, and called for an inquiry, the BJP is maintaining a stoic silence, and going around as if its business as usual.

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The Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi is going ahead with his so called mega push for the south. Modi will be campaigning in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana on Friday. While there has not been any official reaction from the BJP so far, its functionaries claimed that the entire exercise was carried out for "transparency."

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"Transparency" or not, BJP has emerged as the biggest beneficiary.

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Reporters Collective tracking the electoral bonds controversy in a post on X revealed -"Among top 20 electoral bonds donors, two were of RP Sanjiv Goenka firms flagged by CAG for coal rigging the auction." It also revealed that a "little known company with Reliance links donated ten times its profits to political parties..."

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It may be recalled that the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, speaking at a media conclave held recently, asserted that the "link between the probe agency raids and firms purchasing election bonds were based on assumptions."

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Trailing behind BJP is Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress whose share of total electoral bonds stands at 13%.

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Regardless of the silence and despite BJP spin doctors shrugging off threats of any electoral damage, apprehensions lurk in the saffron corridors of power. Sources revealed that the party functionaries have been asked to "double their efforts to contain the damage."

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For the BJP, the impact of the electoral bonds could be felt in the southern parts of the country. With the TMC second in the list of beneficiaries, the BJP felt that the damage could more or less be contained in West Bengal. However, South India is the key to BJP's ambitious target of getting at least 370 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.

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"And if things really do go wrong, we could come down even to 250 seats," a senior party leader, somewhat fearful of the electoral bonds revelation, whispered, requesting complete anonymity.

The south with 132 seats accounted for nearly 24 percent of the total Lok Sabha seats.

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During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls BJP drew a blank in Tamil Nadu with 39 Lok Sabha seats, Andhra Pradesh with 25 seats and Kerala with 20 seats. Of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, the  BJP managed to get only four seats.

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It was Karnataka where the BJP overwhelmed the Opposition by winning 25 of the 28 seats. It failed to open accounts in Puducherry, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

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To plug the gaping holes, the BJP has been desperately seeking allies in the southern states. After the AIADMK rebuffed the BJP, the party hurriedly stitched up an alliance with Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam(AMMK)  in Tamil Nadu. In Andhra, the BJP has joined hands with TDP. and with Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) in Kerala.

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While the BJP was sweating it out to make inroads in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra, some of the leaders felt that Bihar with 40 Lok Sabha berths might not be a cakewalk and the impact of the electoral bonds could reverberate across the state. In 2019 BJP had won 17 of 40 Lok Sabha seats.

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Meanwhile the drama over the electoral bonds is far from over. The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the State Bank of India for not releasing the bond numbers in the electoral bond data submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI). It was claimed that without the bond numbers it was not possible to" cross verify" which company or individual was donating to which party. The Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud observed that the SBI "have not disclosed the bond numbers. That has to be disclosed by the SBI."