"Income Tax officials raided Abhishek Banerjee's chopper, EC remains mute spectator": TMC

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 14 (ANI): Trinamool Congress on Sunday alleged that officials of the Income Tax department raided the helicopter of the party's general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, at Behala Flying Club.
"Five days before elections, hordes of cash are recovered from the cars of BJP leaders in Jalpaiguri. What do Income Tax officials do? Raid Abhishek Banerjee's chopper, while ECI
remains a mute spectator. The irony is that all this comes on a day when PM Narendra Modi
claims to fight corruption," Trinamool Congress posted on X.
TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee also targeted the Election Commission over the alleged incident and said that the poll body with the BJP decided to deploy 'minions' of the Income Tax department.
"Instead of removing the NIA DG and SP, ECI, and BJP chose to deploy MINIONS FROM IT to search and raid my chopper and security personnel today, resulting in NO FINDINGS. The ZAMINDARS can exert all there might but Bengal's SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE will never waver," he said.
Earlier, Trinamool Congress (TMC) General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that a Bharatiya Janata Party member conducted a meeting with NIA officials and a BJP worker went to "NIA officer's house and handed over a packet to him hinting at understanding between the BJP and NIA".
"We will definitely go (to the Supreme Court). We want to tell those who are in favour of the NIA that no meeting took place, that the BJP guy who had gone to the NIA officer's house had a packet in his hand, but when he left, he did not have the packet in hand. We will also give high-quality footage of this to the Supreme Court. Whatever he has to say, he can say it in court," he said.
Polling for the Lok Sabha in Bengal will take place across all 7 phases, starting April 19. The counting of votes has been scheduled for June 4.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC won 34 seats in the state, while the BJP had to settle for 2 seats. The CPI (M) won 2 seats, while the Congress bagged 4.
However, the BJP came up with a much-improved showing in the 2019 polls, winning 18 seats against the TMC's 22. The Congress's tally dropped to just 2 seats, while the Left scored a blank. (ANI)