Shivraj Singh Chouhan slams Kamal Nath, says MP CM ‘behaving’ like Mamata Banerjee

Bhopal, Apr 07: Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan has slammed Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, saying that the state CM is 'behaving' like West Bengal CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.

"There is a constitutional crisis in Madhya Pradesh. Why IT dept team is not being allowed to work? Who asked the local police to reach there (IT raids sites)? Is this not an act of promoting corruption?" Chouhan asked.

"I-T dept is doing its work, it's their constitutional right. CRPF soldiers were on duty, they were being stopped; MP Police clashed with CRPF. What Mamata ji did in Bengal, the same game is being played in MP. It's an attempt to save corrupts," he added.

Reacting to the Income Tax searches on the premises of his close aides, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Sunday said the BJP was taking such actions for electoral gains sensing defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The Income Tax (IT) department launched pre-dawn searches on at least 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh (Indore and Bhopal) on Sunday against people linked to Nath on charges of alleged tax evasion, officials said. The searches were linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing poll season and tax evasion, they added.

Pradeep Kumar, a CRPF official, alleged that the Madhya Pradesh Police wasn't letting them work. "The local police is hurling abuses at us. We're only following orders of our seniors. Seniors have asked us to not let anybody in. Proceedings are on, that's why we're not letting anybody in; only performing our duty," said the official.

In a statement issued through Madhya Pradesh Congress media cell coordinator Narendra Saluja, Nath said, "The situation about the I-T raids is not clear yet. It would be appropriate to speak on this after the situation is clear. But the entire country knows how the constitutional institutions were used and against whom they were used during the past five years."

"These institutions were used to scare people. When they do not have anything to say on development and their work, they used this kind of tactics against their opponents," the CM's statement added. "When the BJP saw its defeat in the coming Lok Sabha polls, they started taking such actions deliberately to take benefit in the election. They also used such tactics before the last Assembly polls," he asserted.

Nath added that several political parties and states had witnessed such kind of tactics during the last five years.

"We were ready for this. There should be an impartial inquiry into everything. Such tactics do not make any difference to us. "The people of the state know the truth. In the coming Lok Sabha polls, the people of the state will answer these acts," the Chief Minister said in the statement.

The BJP-led central government also came under fire from former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Expressing ignorance about the cash found during Sunday's I-T raids, Singh said the BJP could go to any extent (to have its way).

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)