The Congress on Wednesday lashed out at the Modi government for “misusing” central forces to “intimidate and terrorise” its Gujarat MLAs lodged in a resort near Bengaluru ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls. This came shortly after the deployment of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), without consulting the State government, and the Income-Tax raids on properties linked to Karnataka Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who owns the resort.
Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said, at least four of the 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat were also questioned by the central forces as to when and why they had come to the resort. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh charged the BJP with “waging war” against the Congress in a “premeditated conspiracy”, and said the Centre’s actions amounted to an attack on democracy and the federal structure.
Ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, where the BJP has the numbers for two seats, and the Congress for one, the BJP has fielded a third candidate to try and see whether it can defeat the Congress nominee, Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Shifting of MLAs
In recent days, the Congress took the extreme step of moving the bulk of its MLAs to Benguluru after six of them resigned from the party – one of them is the third BJP candidate. The defeat of Mr. Patel would deal a psychological blow to the Congress, already battered and weakened, so the BJP is clearly pulling out all the stops. These elections are also being held months before State polls. Mr. Kharge, however, expressed confidence that Mr. Patel would win his RS seat “with a majority despite the use of manpower, money power, muscle power and ‘Modi power’ by the ruling BJP.”
Mr. Ramesh stressed that the central forces had been deployed without seeking the State government’s permission. The action in Bengaluru, he said, was “ tanashahi ” (dictatorship) and “Amitshahi”, adding, “this jugalbandi (duet) of the PM and (BJP president) Amit Shah is a threat to our democracy.”
