Opposition unites against ED action against TN minister

Several Opposition leaders condemned the Enforcement Directorate (ED) searches against Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji, slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) misusing central agencies.

Tamil Nadu CM and DMK chief MK Stalin said the BJP leadership is enacting “politics of intimidation”. BJP’s bid to intimidate through backdoor tactics like ED raids won’t work, he said.

“It doesn’t matter on whom the raid was conducted, but it matters where the raid was carried out. Union Home Minister has severely criticised DMK in a public meeting in Vellore, and we gave proper counter-argument to all the allegations. Conducting a raid in the Secretariat is against the federal structure,” Stalin said.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said such gross misuse of investigation agencies against political opponents has been the hallmark of the BJP-led government. Condemning the ED searches, Kharge said these tactics will not succeed in silencing the Opposition.

With the raids on Senthil Balaji’s office, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said the ED has now ventured to the southern states with its sinister motive to crush the voice against an “undemocratic” Central Government.

Reacting to searches, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said the BJP’s misuse of central agencies to harass and intimidate the opposition continues unabated.

West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said ED raids at the minister’s office inside the state secretariat are unacceptable.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury condemned the ED raids at the office of Tamil Nadu Minister.

The Minister, a DMK strongman from Karur district, said he was not aware of what the officials had come searching for at his premises and assured to extend total cooperation in the probe.

The ruling DMK hit out at the ED raids and termed it as an attempt to ‘divert’ attention from the ongoing war of words between NDA constituents BJP and the AIADMK.

Senior DMK leader and its Organisation Secretary R S Bharathi said the party has seen many such raids but no charges have been proved against its leaders in the past. They were an attempt to defame the party, he alleged.

The raids were being carried out at Balaji’s premises in state capital Chennai and his native Karur. Besides these, ED officials also searched the house of a Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) lorry contractor in Erode district. State-run TASMAC is the retailer of liquor in Tamil Nadu.

Balaji also holds the Prohibition and Excise portfolio.

The Supreme Court had earlier allowed police and ED probe into an alleged cash-for-jobs scam against Balaji, who was earlier with the AIADMK. He was Transport Minister in the late Jayalalithaa-led Cabinet.

The ED conducted the searches under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.

Last month, the Income Tax department too had searched people close to Balaji in the state.