Congress Hits Back At BJP Over Misuse Of Central Agencies During Elections

The Congress today hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the ‘clear and blatant misuse’ of the central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax department during the elections in states like Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The Grand Old Party’s reaction came in response to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claims that the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel received money from the promoters of Mahadev betting app.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi today, party general secretaries KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh and senior leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, this was a clear sign of panic on part of the BJP as it was staring at a clear defeat in both the states.

The party leaders said that the constitutional authorities like the Election Commission of India (ECI) should take note of this and ensure level playing field during the elections. They hinted at approaching the ECI also over the blatant misuse of the central agencies when the Election Code of Conduct was in force.

Referring to the allegations by the ED against Mr Baghel, Mr Venugopal said, “whenever there are elections, the main weapon for the BJP becomes the ED, or Income Tax department”. He pointed out, “we saw in the Karnataka elections that during the election itself, they raided more than 100 Congress candidates”. He said, in all the five states, including Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, the public mood is very clear and Congress is going to form the government everywhere”.

Mr Venugopal alleged that the BJP has only one weapon and that is the ED. “In both Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan our governments are popular, and the schemes are reaching the common people of the states… But they have only one target, which is to damage the image and reputation of the Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan just ahead of elections.”

Mr Jairam Ramesh said, “I only want to say that this is a clear misuse. It is vendetta politics. It is only being applied because the BJP is clearly losing in both the states”.

Giving details of the Mahadev app case, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, it was a one-and-a-half-year-old case in which Chhattisgarh government has taken all the action it could. He said, Chhattisgarh police have registered more than 70 cases against the Mahadev App, arrested more than 450 persons, seized 191 Laptops, 865 Mobile devices, more than 1.5 cr worth of assets, more than 41 lakh in cash, and frozen bank accounts with estimated value of 16 cr.

Dr Singhvi said, due to jurisdictional limitations of the state police, the State government had approached the central government and its agencies to arrest the absconding accused Ravi Uppal and Saurabh Chandrakar from the source of operation or so-called headquarters of the Mahadev App in Dubai.

The Congress leaders pointed out, despite a ruthless and cruel questioning of people close to the Chief Minister the ED could not find anything. Now, they added, these politically motivated raids were conducted on the basis of the statement of one of the arrested people. The same person has accused the ED in open court that he has been coerced into taking many names so that they can encircle the Chief Minister, they pointed out.

“One of the premiere investigating agencies of the largest democracy in the world has sent out a press release accusing a Chief Minister of an election bound state and allowing a public and media trial with this accusation”, the Congress leaders said, while adding, “ED has very conveniently saved themselves from legal action by adding ‘subject to investigation’”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking at an election rally in Chhattisgarh, hit out at the Congress party connecting the Mahadev betting app row and said that the Congress hadn’t even spared ‘Mahadev’, a name for Hindu Lord Shiva. He also accused Congress for using illegal hawala money from betting app operators to meet the election expenses. Chhattisgarh will be going to the poll booths on November 7 and 17 for the upcoming assembly elections, and counting is scheduled for December 3.