IT raids at premises of Akhilesh Yadav’s close aide in UP

Lucknow:  The Income Tax department on Saturday conducted raids at the premises belonging to senior Samajwadi Party leaders including party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s close aide.

Samajwadi Party national secretary and spokesperson Rajeev Rai, Akhilesh’s personal secretary Jainendra Yadav, and another party leader and RCL Group promoter Manoj Yadav were among those whose residences were raided.

The IT sleuths carried out searches in Uttar Pradesh’s Mau, Lucknow, Agra and Mainpuri.

Slamming the searches, Akhilesh, who is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in the crucial state polls next year, questioned the timing of the raids.

“I have said this several times that as elections near.. all this starts happening. Right now, the tax department has come… the now the Enforcement Directorate will come, CBI will come) but the cycle (the Samajwadi Party’s poll symbol) will not stop… we will continue at the same speed … the BJP will be wiped out of UP,” the SP leader said.

“If they had the information earlier, then why the search agency chose this time, two months prior to polls. It shows that the ED and the CBI will also come to the state to fight the polls,” he said.

“Earlier, the Congress also used to intimidate people by misusing central agencies like the I-T, CBI and the ED,” he further said.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also took to Twitter to hit out at the Centre, saying the raids will now increase as the BJP fears defeat.

“The more the BJP’s fear of defeat increases, the round of raids on the opponents will increase, yet the chariot of the Samajwadi Party and every program will continue unabated. Even the public now stands unitedly against the BJP. Will the BJP now raid 22 crores people of the state?” he wrote on Twitter in Hindi.