New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of playing “vendetta politics” and said the saffron party was “frustrated” over its impending poll loss after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids were conducted on the offices of the aides of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
"The is nothing but BJP’s vendetta politics. This is not new. They have been misusing the central agencies to destabilize the Opposition governments in the states. The BJP has realized that it is losing the coming assembly polls in the state and has no way to fight the Congress,” AICC secretary in charge of Chhattisgarh Chandan Yadav told ETV Bharat.
“Such intimidatory tactics have no effect on the Congress. We have kept our promises over the past five years and have developed the state. The people have liked our work and are supporting us. We are confident that the Congress will form the next government in the state. The people have seen through the BJP's ploy,” he said.
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According to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionary, the latest ED raids were an indicator of "BJP's petty politics" and that "similar raids had taken place in February also."
“Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is celebrating his birthday today. To conduct Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on his aides on such a day shows the height of BJP’s ill-will towards the Opposition leaders. Similar raids were conducted against some Congress leaders just before our Plenary Session was to start in Raipur in February. But we are not affected by such pressure tactics. We will keep doing our work as per the constitutional responsibilities,” said Yadav.
The AICC functionary cited some more instances of the alleged misuse of the central agencies and said that in the past various Congress governments were toppled by the BJP-led Centre through coercion or allurement.
"There are many examples. Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are key examples where the BJP toppled our governments through the use of money power. They played similar tricks in Maharashtra where the Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP MVA was in power. They targeted the (Shiv) Sena and the NCP. Raids against Opposition leaders have become a pattern to intimidate them. But all this is not going to work. The BJP is rattled by the Opposition alliance INDIA and the way it is moving forward,” said Yadav.
The AICC functionary claimed that most of the promises made by the party in the 2018 Assembly polls have been implemented and both the party and the state government were reaching out to the people to explain the achievements.
“The Congress has set high development benchmarks in the state, even in the Naxal- affected areas, and the BJP is at a loss to respond to this situation politically. Therefore, the ED raids. As I said, it does not affect us. Our confidence stems from the feedback that we get from the public to the various schemes for the poor and marginalized sections. Even during the Covid pandemic, we performed better than the Centre. Now our rural health vans are taking healthcare to the villages. The poor are earning by selling cow dung under the 'GoDhan' scheme, girls are attending schools and cost-effective English medium education is becoming affordable,” said Yadav.
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