BENGALURU: Less than 24 hours after Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy warned that he would use “Mamata Banerjee’s tactics” against any move by the centre to use the government’s organs for political vendetta in election season, Income tax officers raids politicians of Janata Dal Secular-Congress coalition and their associates across Karnataka, sources said today.
The Karnataka Chief Minister took to Twitter and said “PM Narendra Modi’s real surgical strike is out in the open through IT dept raids. The constitutional post offer for IT officer Balakrishna helped the PM in his revenge game. Highly deplorable to use govt machinery, corrupt officials to harass opponents during election time.”
PM @narendramodi's real surgical strike is out in the open through IT dept raids. The constitutional post offer for IT officer Balakrishna helped the PM in his revenge game. Highly deplorable to use govt machinery, corrupt officials to harrass opponents during election time.
— ಹೆಚ್.ಡಿ.ಕುಮಾರಸ್ವಾಮಿ | H.D.Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) March 28, 2019
Last month, In an unprecedented confrontation between the Narendra Modi-led central government and the West Bengal government, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee staged a protest after a CBI team knocked on the doors of former Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar to question him in chit fund scam cases.
The Karnataka government alleged the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was using the income tax department to harass leaders of the ruling coalition in Karnataka.
The income tax officials came to the homes of Karnataka Minor Irrigation Minister CS Puttaraju in Mandya district and his nephew’s in Mysuru along with CRPF personnel in today’s pre-dawn raids.
Mr Puttaraju, who is in charge of Mandya district from where the chief minister’s son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, is fighting his first election said “I’m not deterred by the raids, which are election-related. I would like to know which BJP leader’s house in Karnataka has been raided?”
According to the reports, HD Revanna’s house who is the chief minister’s brother and son of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda is also searched by the IT department.
The Congress took to Twitter and tweeted “This is the first time in the history of India that a Prime Minister has misused autonomous institutions with such flagrant disregard. The people will teach him a lesson.”
The Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka are scheduled to take place on April 18 and 23. Results will be out on May 23.