Don't link Karnataka income-tax raids with Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls: FM Arun Jaitley to Congress

Both Houses of Parliament saw a logjam+ for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, with the opposition calling I-T raids on one of itsKarnataka ministers a political ploy+ by the BJP, a charge Union minister Arun Jaitley then hotly denied.

"This can't be a coincidence," said Congress leader Anand Sharma in the Rajya Sabha, referring to Wednesday morning's raids on the properties of Karnatakapower minister DK Shivakumar, who's been put in charge of shielding 44 Gujarat Congress legislators from the BJP's "poaching" attempts ahead of Rajya Sabha polls in that state. These legislators are being lodged at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru. "It has become a brazen trend to use state power and agencies (for political ends), whether it is the income tax department+ or the CBI," Sharma further said. The BJP's Jaitley, who spoke on the issue in both Houses of Parliament, denied any political opportunism. "The use or abuse (of power) will depend on the nature of what the I-T department recovers," Jaitley said.

Preliminary reports suggest the I-T department recovered around Rs 7 crores from Shivakumar's properties+ that it found questionable. The I-T department meanwhile said the raid was "pre-planned".

The Congress MPs, though, didn't believe a word of it.

"This is a targeted timing as the minister and his cousins are facilitating the stay of the Congress leaders," Sharma said, referring to the Gujarat Congress MLAs. His party colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad concurred. "If this raid is only on a person, then you could have done it a month before, or a month after," he said. Congress MPs also found it a mite too coincidental that even though the raids were purportedly against the minister, I-T officials went even to the resort where the Congress MLAs were lodged. Jaitley attempted to disabuse the Congress MPs of that notion saying that just because the minister had "gone and parked himself" at the resort he can't get "immunity from the law".

"In that resort where your MLAs are staying, no search has taken place, no MLA has been searched. A particular individual was to be searched. He has gone and parked himself in that resort. So the authorities, because they had to confront him with the recovery, had gone to (the resort) get him (the minister) to his residence so that he could be adequately questioned by the authorities," the finance minister said, adding that the minister has been taken to his residence from the resort.

The Congress said there was a clear connection between the raids and the upcoming elections in Gujarat for three Rajya Sabha seats. "Just to defeat one Rajya Sabha candidate they are doing all this, but they will not be successful," said Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress, in the Lok Sabha. He was referring specifically to a seat his party colleague Ahmed Patel is contesting.

In the election, there are so far four candidates in the running for the three seats. The BJP is fielding party president Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and Balwantsinh Rajput. It's Rajput who will be contesting against the Congress's Patel. And after Gujarat Congress strongman Shankersinh Vaghela quit and took with him six other legislators last week, three of whom defected to the BJP. The Congressfears more defections would ruin Patel's chances and sees the I-T raids as the BJP's ploy to influence the election.

Jaitley though reiterated that there was no connection between the raid and the Gujarat election.

"This raid should not be linked with any Gujarat poll, this is on a purely economic offence," he said.

Not mollified, Congress members trooped into the well of Rajya Sabha and started shouting slogans, following which the House was adjourned for 10 minutes. But when proceedings resumed, Congress members again started raising slogans during question hour, leading the chair to adjourn again.

Meanwhile, in the Lok Sabha, Kharge called the raids "a political vendetta and witch- hunting" and accused the government of using central agencies for political ends which would then "ruin the ethos of democracy."