ED has become a joke today: Sharad Pawar

Amid the uneasy calm after the political crisis that loomed over the state in the last week, Sharad Pawar said on Thursday that the BJP government at the center is now using the central agencies, especially the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to their advantage and the results are working out pretty well for them.

Mumbai:NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday took to Twitter to talk about a 'love letter' that he received from the Income Tax Department on Thursday, a day after rebel MLA Eknath Shinde took charge as the Maharashtra Chief Minister. "I have received a love letter from the Income Tax Department," read Pawar's tweet, stating that the central agency is presently investigating the information contained in all the affidavits he had filed while contesting the 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2020 Lok Sabha elections.

This comes a day after rebel leader Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was appointed as his deputy. The veteran politician who had played a major role in stitching the Maha Vikas Agadhi government that came tumbling down on Wednesday with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's resignation, put out a series of tweets Thursday evening, stating the methodologies adopted by the BJP to target their political rivals.

Amid the uneasy calm after the political crisis that loomed over the state in the last week, Sharad Pawar said on Thursday that the BJP government at the center is now using the central agencies, especially the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to their advantage and the results are working out pretty well for them. It is a new way to make the political opposition fall in line, Pawar said, adding that some members of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly have received notices from the ED. "About five years ago we were not even aware of the ED. However, now the ED has been reduced to a joke in the nooks and corners of even the rural parts of the country," Pawar said.

Sharad Pawar added that he has all the information needed and is not worried. "I applaud the tenacity of these agencies, it has drastically improved over time. It is indeed a daunting task to gather years of information, that too about specific people," he said sarcastically.

Earlier, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had criticized the BJP government for abusing the powers of the central investigating agencies. Raut had also accused the rebel MLAs of joining the Eknath Shinde camp out of the fear of facing summons or notice from investigating agencies like the ED. Sanjay Raut was also summoned by the ED on Friday in a land scam case. "Even if my neck is cut, I will not accept the route to Guwahati," Raut had said earlier.