46 I-T raids in poll season, 39 against Congress-JDS

The Income Tax department has been pretty busy this year, and statistics bear out the number of raids conducted in Karnataka. The sudden swoops through election season have come in for some sharp criticism by the Congress-JDS coalition, the main target of the raids.
In 2019, the I-T department carried out 46 raids during the parliamentary elections, of which 39 were directed against coalition leaders and their aides — 22 against the JDS and 17 against the Congress.
During the 2018 assembly elections, the department carried out 34 raids; again, most of the action was against the Congress and JDS.
Reacting to this, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said, “If this is not vindictive politics, what is it? All of us -- Siddaramaiah, G Parameshwara, Dinesh Gundu Rao and myself -- protested outside the I-T office. These statistics reveal why we protested. The raids are only proof of what I have been saying again and again.’’ Curiously, in 2014, there were no raids during general elections.
Former Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said, “This is how the ruling party is instilling fear in the minds of the people, and using central agencies — IT, ED and CBI —for its political advantage.’’ Sibal is representing Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, who was raided during the 2018 assembly elections and later too

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