Raipur: Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Thursday called the recent raids by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on his key aides as ‘politically motivated’.
Talking to reporters here, Mr Baghel alleged that the Union government was using the central agencies to target his government with an aim to disrupt the ongoing preparation for the year-end polls in the state by the ruling Congress.
He cautioned that BJP might face wrath of voters in the forthcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh if the alleged intimidation by the central agencies of his government continued.
“Congress will not be intimidated by such actions of the central agencies”, he said.
The chief minister’s three key aides, his political advisor Vinod Verma and two officers on special duty (OSDs) were raided by the ED on Wednesday, leading to protests by the Congress workers at their places.
The ED raids were said to have been conducted in connection with online betting cases, alleged coal scam and liquor scandal.
Mr Baghel said that his government had initiated actions against an online betting App and arrested some people in this connection.
The kingpin was found to be operating from a Middle East country, he said.
The Centre should initiate action to repatriate the kingpin to India to take action against him, he said.
Mr Baghel said that he and Mr Verma were even imprisoned during the Raman Singh regime before the 2018 assembly elections to undermine them.
But, the ploy by BJP had then not worked and the outcome of the polls had gone in the favour of Congress.
Mr Baghel said that the actions by the Central agencies against his government may intensify in coming days since the assembly elections were barely three months away and warned that BJP might face another debacle in the coming assembly elections for this.
He dared BJP to face him and his party in the polls and accused the Centre of using the central agencies against his government to defame it and Congress.
