Cong foes see poll funding angle in raids

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Congress’ political enemies in the state and beyond on Friday saw a grand conspiracy behind the recent Income Tax (I-T) raid on the properties belonging to a Bengaluru-based civil contractor in which Rs 42 crores of unaccounted for cash was allegedly recovered.

JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy wondered out loud as to why such large sums of cash were being recovered on the eve of elections, implying that the recovered funds would have been used by the Congress for the five upcoming Assembly polls.

BJP MLA CN Ashwath Narayan and saffron party MLC N Ravikumar made similar claims but were more direct in their allegations, going so far as to claim that the amount recovered had been a part of the bribes meant to clear Rs 650 crore pending dues.

“We are being informed that the contents of these 23 boxes were headed to neighbouring Telangana. Is it true that money was being gathered for the upcoming elections there?” Kumaraswamy asked.

Even competitors from neighbouring states such as Telangana Minister for Information Technology KT Rama Rao echoed these sentiments.

“The intellectually bankrupt Congress and it’s leadership is pumping hundreds of crores of rupees from Karnataka to purchase votes in Telangana Their PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) Cheap (Chief) was the one who was caught on camera bribing in Vote for Note scam and now since this criminal is now leading the pack of Thugs, this was very much expected. Let’s say No to Scamgress in TS,” Rao said.

It is to be noted that Telangana’s 119 member Assembly goes to polls on November 30.