Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday said that the raids conducted by Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the house of Chief Minister Charanjit Channi's relative house seem to be part of the political agenda of BJP-led central government as State Assembly elections are approaching.
Sidhu, in an exclusive interview with ANI, said, "It looks like a political agenda because Punjab polls are coming. It seems that the Central government is taking action against our government."
Earlier on Tuesday, the ED conducted raids at nearly a dozen places in Punjab in connection with an alleged illegal sand mining case. The federal agents searched the residence and office premises of the suspects including premises linked to sand mafia Bhupinder Singh Honey.
According to ED officials, Honey is reportedly a relative of Channi and had allegedly floated a firm named Punjab Realtors to get sand mining contracts.
Reacting to the raids, Channi also alleged that a recent raid at his relative Bhupinder Singh Honey's house indicated that it was a 'revenge' for the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Ferozepur in Punjab.
He added that Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and other agencies are being used by the Central government in order to implicate him.
Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab, the senior Congress leader said, "PM Modi cannot be unsafe in Punjab. We respect him wholeheartedly. The incident took place due to the empty chairs at the event in Ferozepur."
The Prime Minister was stuck atop a flyover for 15-20 minutes while on his way to Ferozpur, Punjab earlier this month due to the road being blocked by some protesters. The Ministry of Home Affairs termed it as a "major lapse" in his security.
Sidhu also explained the roadmap of the Punjab Congress for the upcoming state polls which aims at the development of youth and creating employment opportunities by promoting entrepreneurship.
He said that the party wants to transform Mohali into an IT hub, Startup city and Education city and the Punjab model aims at creating 10 industrial and 13 food processing clusters.
"I'll invite Elon Musk (Tesla owner) to Punjab and create the biggest EV industry in Ludhiana," he added.
Punjab will go to the polls on February 20. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
( With inputs from ANI )
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