Bhopal: The pre-dawn swoop by income-tax sleuths on houses and business establishments of people linked to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath here on Sunday left both ruling Congress and Opposition BJP stunned.
The news about I-T raids on an apartment linked to a close aide of Mr Nath spread like wildfire within no time taking Congress, BJP as well as state police by surprise.
In fact, state home minister Bala Bachhan preferred to evade queries from the newsmen on the development appearing to steer himself clear of the situation. “Raids are going on”, he said refusing to entertain further questions from the reporters.
Mr Nath was away in Chhindwara to campaign for Congress for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
Interestingly, former chief minister and BJP national vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan cancelled his scheduled press conference, convened at 11 in the morning, when raids hit headlines in local news channels.
“The news conference was cancelled for unavoidable reasons”, the BJP media wing explained.
Congress which initially preferred to adopt wait and watch policy refusing to go to media on the development, later criticised the raids, calling it an intimidation of the party ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections at the behest of the Centre.
Former minister and senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra however said the I-T raids had brought to light alleged corruptions in the two-month-old Kamal Nath government.
