Bengaluru, Jun 11 (PTI) Congress General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala on Wednesday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on a party MP and three MLAs in the state reflect the "deep-rooted political vendetta" embedded in the BJP’s DNA.
Criticising the Centre, he said while the Congress government is focused on the welfare of all sections — including the poor, farmers, and middle class — the BJP is resorting to "devious" tactics to malign the party's "pro-people" governance by attacking the Congress Bellary MP E Tukaram and MLAs Nara Bharath Reddy (Bellary city), J N Ganesh (Kampli) and N T Srinivas (Kudligi).
"Have the success of Karnataka Congress government's Guarantee Schemes disturbed the BJP’s sleep? Is the hatred for ST, SC and OBC leaders so strong that all sense of semblance of balance and fairness is lost?" he asked in a post on 'X'.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches against Congress Bellary MP E Tukaram and three MLAs of the party as part of a money laundering investigation into the alleged Valmiki scam-linked money laundering case.
Surjewala alleged that the BJP, through its puppet ED, controlled by the central government, has now launched raids on the homes and offices of Congress MLAs.
"Earlier, they targeted OBC CM Siddaramaiah and Son of Soil, Dy CM D K Shivakumar through the same mischievous instrument of ED. Then, BJP targeted the tall Dalit leader and Home Minister Parameshwara, with ED raids and now ST MP and ST MLA’s," he alleged.
Targeting the BJP, he said "This exposes the deep-rooted political vendetta running in the BJP’s DNA. They continue to weaponize agencies to attack opposition leaders out of sheer political hatred. But look at the reality of these ED raids — in the last 10 years, 193 politically motivated ED cases have been filed, but convictions have occurred in only 2 cases!"
He accused the Centre of misusing ED to "crush" opposition voices.
"Clearly, ED is nothing but a puppet tool being used to intimidate and crush opposition voices. Despite these sinister attempts, the Modi-led central government’s misuse of power cannot break the unity of the Congress party or weaken democracy," he added.