Following income tax raids at the premises of Samajwadi Party's (SP) Pushpraj Jain on Friday, party MP Ram Gopal Yadav took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing it of using central agencies to target Opposition fearing defea in upcoming 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
"BJP got scared after looking at the popularity of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and the number of people who attend his public meetings. They are staring at defeat in Uttar Pradesh. That's why they are stooping so low and doing such things. They have conducted raids at some of our party workers and found nothing. After they got to know Peeyush Jain has links with BJP, news about the raids stopped coming," the SP MP told ANI.
Pushpraj Jain alias Pampi Jain is a Member of the Legislative Council from the SP in UP. The Income Tax Department conducted searches at the premises of Pushpraj Jain, who is involved in the business of perfume.
The searches were conducted at around eight premises including Kanpur, Kannauj, Bombay and Surat linked to two businessmen involved in the trading of perfume including Pushpraj, sources told ANI.
Ram Gopal Yadav also said, "Every time before elections, the BJP write on their cars 'on election duty'. They are doing their job but they are not doing it professionally. They are conducting raids just months before the elections. Was the IT department sleeping before this?"
Meanwhile, the SP earlier today hit out at the BJP and accused the ruling party of misusing central agencies in the run-up to the assembly polls.
"After the huge failure of last time, this time BJP's ultimate ally I-T has finally raided SP MLC Pushpraj Jain and other perfume traders of Kannauj. Open misuse of central agencies by the scared BJP is common in UP elections. The people are watching everything, they will correctly reply with their vote," read the SP's official Twitter handle.
"As soon as respected National President Akhilesh Yadav announced the press conference in Kannauj, the BJP government started carrying out guerilla action at the place of SP MLC Pampi Jain. BJP's fear and anger is clear. People are ready to teach a lesson to BJP!," the SP said in a tweet.
Notably, the Peeyush Jain, a Kanpur-based businessman, was arrested on Sunday under Section 67 of the CGST Act after the recovery of unaccounted cash, gold and sandalwood. The accused has been sent to 14 days of judicial custody by a Kanpur court in the matter.
Meanwhile, Assembly polls are due in Uttar Pradesh next year.
( With inputs from ANI )
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