Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patanaik face CBI heat in graft cases

New Delhi: As the Opposition gears up to form a “mahagatbandhan” to stop the Modi juggernaut in the 2019 general elections, the CBI seems to be rapidly closing in on two major political entities — West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and Odisha chief minister and BJD chief, Naveen Patanaik.

The CBI is apparently zeroing in on Ms Banerjee and Mr Patanaik in the multicrore Narada bribery scam and Seashore Group ponzi scam.

The CBI has got hold of what it claims to be “clinching” electronic evidence to nail Saroj Kumar Sahoo, Mr Patnaik’s former aide in connection with the Seashore Group’s scam.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are investigating 44 ponzi companies in Odisha and Seashore Group is one of them. The CBI has alleged that Mr Sahoo was the “political conduit” for shoring up operations of the Seashore Group.

The agency is now probing whether the chief minister’s office had a “direct role” in this particular scam.

In January, the agency raided the houses Mr Sahoo, BJD’s Lok Sabha MP Rabindra Jena and BJD MLA Pravat Biswal in connection with the scam. There are allegations that Supratik Group, headed by Mr Jena, had secured a loan of '18 crore from the Seashore Group. CBI officials did not rule out the involvement of “top politicians of the state”. Politically, the BJD has so far remained neutral and has not joined the Opposition bandwagon against Mr Modi. The party has also not revealed its cards on the issue of the forthcoming presidential polls.

The BJP is determined to oust the Congress as the BJD’s main rival in Odisha. Its intent was made clear when the BJP chose Bhubhaneshwar to hold its national executive meet in May this year where the Prime Minister also held a road show.

In the Narada scam, Trinamul’s heavyweight MPs, including party vice-president Mukul Roy, Madan Mitra, Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmed, Iqbal Ahmed, Kakoli Ghosh, Prasun Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari, have been named by the CBI in its FIR.

Ms Banerjee has been aggressively campaigning against the Centre and has been the leading face against demonetisation.  

The BJP’s other threat, Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has anyway been targeted by investigating agency. Speculation is rife that the income-tax department and the ED are also closing in on RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s sons — who are ministers in the Bihar government — and daughter, Misa, an RJD Rajya Sabha MP.

BJP sources said that “corruption” would remain one of its main poll planks in the 2019 general elections.

A section of BJP leaders “hoped” that the “dealings” in the controversial land deals of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, would also be exposed by 2019. “This government will not spare anyone, no matter how powerful or connected the person is,” a senior BJP official said.