The TMC has petitioned the court to declare the ED's actions illegal and to order the immediate return of all confidential party documents. (Image X @KanchanGupta)
Kolkata: As the assembly elections in West Bengal draw closer, political tensions are escalating. On Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the Kolkata office of I-PAC, a political consultancy and election management company.
West Bengal Chief and Trinamool Congress supremo Minister Mamata Banerjee also stormed to the I-PAC premises to forcibly take away sensitive documents, after which the controversy intensified.
Two separate FIRs have been filed against the ED in West Bengal. The matter has also reached the courts. The TMC has petitioned the court to declare the ED's actions illegal and to order the immediate return of all confidential party documents. Earlier in the day, the ED filed a petition claiming that the raids were connected to the 'Bengal coal mining' scam and accused Mamata Banerjee of 'obstructing' the official investigation.
Mamata Banerjee has announced a protest march on Friday against the Enforcement Directorate's raids. She termed the action politically motivated and an attempt to intimidate the TMC before the elections.
The West Bengal unit of the Congress has also protested against the ED raids. The opposition frequently alleges that the Modi government is deliberately and selectively targeting their leaders through central investigative agencies.
Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has called West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee a "lioness." On Friday, Mufti praised Mamata, saying the Trinamool Congress chief is "very brave" and will not back down. Mufti was reacting to the raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday at the office of the political consulting firm 'I-PAC' and the residence of its director, Prateek Jain, in Kolkata.
Mufti said that while such raids by the ED or other investigating agencies have become commonplace in Jammu and Kashmir, "the entire country is now experiencing this."
Referring to her own arrest, and the arrests of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah after the abrogation of most provisions of Article 370, she said, "When Article 370 was abrogated, raids were conducted and three chief ministers were put in jail, and at that time most political parties remained silent. Now the same situation is being seen across the country."
The PDP chief said, "I hope that Banerjee is very brave, she is a lioness, and she will effectively fight them and will not surrender." Mehbooba Mufti is, in fact, trying to target the ruling BJP at the center through Mamata Banerjee. Mehbooba has long been a critic of the BJP and the central government. Now, by praising Mamata, she has symbolically expressed her support for her fight.
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