UP: IT Raids Against Samajwadi Party Leaders, Akhilesh Yadav Questions Timing Ahead of Assembly Polls

In what has become a critical part of Bhartiya Janata Party's (BJP) election playbook, just like manifestos or rallies, the Income Tax (IT) department performed its election season ritual by raiding yet another opponent of BJP. In the past, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have also been tasked with these "surprise" visits to whosoever contests elections against the party. This time around, Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh is at the receiving end of this exercise in intimidation.

On Saturday, November 18, IT department officials searched the premises of SP leader Rajeev Rai in UP's Mau district. Rai is SP's national secretary and spokesperson. Along with Rai, two other aides of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav- Manoj Yadav and Jainendra Yadav- were "also raided by the tax department in Mainpuri and Lucknow." The raids are happening ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in UP, scheduled for early next year.

Reacting to these developments, Akhilesh Yadav said that he isn't surprised with the raids on the premises of his party leaders and in the coming days, he expects ED and CBI to follow with their set of raids.

भाजपा का हार का डर जितना बढ़ता जायेगा, विपक्षियों पर छापों का दौर भी उतना बढ़ता जाएगा फिर भी सपा का रथ व हर कार्यक्रम बदस्तूर चलता जाएगा।

अब तो जनता पूरी तरह भाजपा के ख़िलाफ़ विपक्ष के साथ खड़ी है, अब क्या बाइस के लिए भाजपा सरकार उप्र की बाइस करोड़ जनता के यहाँ छापे डालेगी। pic.twitter.com/yerCG1A107

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) December 18, 2021

"The more the BJP's fear of defeat increases, the round of raids on the opposition will also increase, yet the SP chariot and every party program will continue unabated. Now the public is completely standing with the opposition against the BJP. Will the BJP government conduct raids on twenty-two crore people of UP to win in 2022?" Akhilesh Yadav tweeted.

Akhilesh Yadav further said that SP leader Rai had been "working day and night for the development of the party." He questioned the timing of the raids, adding that "only when the election comes, this central agency came to contest election here."

The timing of these raids is hardly surprising to anyone. In April this year, just a few days before the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, the IT department had raided DMK chief M.K. Stalin's daughter Senthamarai's residence. In February, just over a month before the Assembly polls in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee's wife and sister-in-law were summoned by CBO in a year-old case. In September 2019, ahead of Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the ED had registered "an alleged money laundering case against Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar, in connection with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam."

As per an Indian Express report from April 2019, the IT department had carried out 15 searches against opposition leaders and their associates in the past six months- five in Karnataka, three in Tamil Nadu, two in Andhra Pradesh, two in Delhi and one each in MP, J&K and UP. During this time, only one BJP leader was raided. As highlighted by Akhilesh Yadav's comments, the raids have become so common and familiar that opposition parties have begun to accept them as the electoral norm.

Only those opposition leaders who have joined BJP have been left-at-ease from these raids or have seen the probes moving at snail's pace. For instance, the investigation against Mukul Roy was halted after he joined BJP in Bengal. Similar things happened in cases involving Suvendu Adhikari and Sovan Chatterjee after joining BJP from TMC ahead of the Assembly polls this year.