Row erupts as I-T dept raids Karnataka minister; Jaitley rejects Congress charge

Income-Tax searches were conducted on Wednesday at Karnataka Power Minister DK Shivakumar's residences and at a luxury resort outside Bengaluru where he was hosting about 40 Gujarat Congress MLAs ahead of next week's Rajya Sabha elections, sparking a political row that rocked Parliament's both Houses.

The Congress alleged political vendetta by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and claimed that the searches were a move to terrorise the MLAs. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel is fighting a close battle to retain his RS seat in Gujarat after six Congress MLAs quit the party. Gujarat MLAs will vote in the August 8 RS polls and also in the Assembly elections due later this year.

The searches were believed to have been conducted at Shivakumar's houses in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai for tax evasion. Officials said that he, his aide and his driver were picked up for questioning.

Shivakumar had been tasked by his party to look after the Gujarat MLAs to prevent a rash of defections.

Sources said he was allegedly seen tearing up documents at the resort, and that several crores in cash were recovered from his residences. The Congress denied any cash recovery.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rejected charges of political motives behind the action and said it had nothing to do with Gujarat's developments. He said tax officials visited the resort because they had to bring "a particular individual" to his house to check certain documents seized during the searches. The I-T department said the searches were in continuation of an investigation in progress for a long time.

The Congress had on July 29 flown its MLAs to the resort located in the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Shivakumar's younger brother DK Suresh. Shivakumar is MLA from the Kanakapura assembly segment in the district.

The BJP is on an unprecedented witch-hunt just to win one Rajya Sabha seat, tweeted Patel, who is Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political adviser. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the raids were a conspiracy.

The Congress forced repeated adjournments of the Rajya Sabha which wound up business much ahead of schedule because of continued slogan-shouting by Congress MPs in the House. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said government agencies were being used to terrorise people. "What is happening in this country? This House as well as the Election Commission will have to ensure free and fair elections," Azad said.

In the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said "In Gujarat, Congress had 57 members and the support of four others, but BJP broke away five members. Now they are using the I-T department to threaten them as well as a Minister of Karnataka".

Gujarat Congress President Bharatsinh Solanki said that the searches showed the vindictiveness of the ruling BJP at the Centre. "BJP has no ethics," he told reporters. He alleged that family members of many Gujarat Congress MLAs were being questioned at the BJP's behest. He, however, claimed that Patel would win the RS elections.