Jharkhand: CM Hemant Soren, Congress slam BJP for saffron party sticker on I-T sleuths' car

RANCHI/BOKARO/DALTONGANJ: BJP was caught off-guard on Friday when income tax department (I-T) officials, who were carrying out raids in various parts of Jharkhand, were spotted in a vehicle bearing a sticker of the saffron party in Bermo.
The I-T officials were raiding the premises of Congress MLA Kumar Jaimangal alias Anup Singh when the sticker was spotted.
BJP defended itself saying it could be a conspiracy of Congress or simply a car rented by the I-T team happened to have the sticker.
However, seeing the car with the BJP sticker (a pass meant for Vidhan Sabha) on the vehicle of the I-T sleuths, local Congress cadres reacted sharply and sat on a dharna outside Jaimangal's residence, raising slogans against the I-T department and BJP.
Chief minister Hemant Soren, who returned from Chhattisgarh after taking part in an Adivasi mahotsav in Raipur, to participate in the 'Sarkar Aapke Dwar' programme in Daltonganj, also questioned the use of a BJP car by the I-T officials.
Raids politically motivated: Congress
During the raid in Bermo, supporters of Jaimangal and Congress leaders heckled the I-T officials and were prepared to stop the raids, which they claimed were politically motivated.
The situation was, however, brought under control by Jaimangal's mother Rani Singh, who is the wife of late INTUC leader Rajendra Prasad Singh, by appealing to the protesters to maintain peace and let the investigators do their job.
She said, "Nothing is going to happen to us. God is watching us."
Notably, the BJP stickers were removed as soon as they were spotted, but by then, the damage has already been done and the video footage and photographs of the sticker on the car went viral.
In Daltonganj, Soren picked up the matter and said the saffron party need to explain to the public why and how the raids were orchestrated to disturb a democratically elected government.
"I-T raids were conducted at the homes of two MLAs and the officials were using the vehicles of BJP. Where lies morality? The BJP leaders asked us to set examples of morality and here the I-T officials are using their cars. How low will BJP stoop?" Soren said. The chief minister also appealed to the people to think as to why the ED, I-T and CBI sleuths are "working overtime" in non-BJP governed states. "They go after (Manish) Sisodia, (Arvind) Kejriwal and Mamata (Banerjee) all the time and you all know the reason by now," he said.
In Bermo, Jaimangal accused BJP of sponsoring the I-T raids at his residence "to punish" him for foiling its "Operation Lotus" in Jharkhand.
Referring to the FIR that he had lodged against three of the party MLAs - Irfan Ansari, Naman Vixel Kongari and Rajesh Kachchap - charging them with hobnobbing with the BJP leaders to topple the Hemant Soren government, Jaimangal said, "BJP does not have the numbers, but they are still dreaming of forming a government here under their turncoat leader, Babulal Marandi."
He further said, "I exposed their bid to poach the Congress MLAs and their nefarious moves fell flat."
The three Congress MLAs were intercepted by Kolkata Police in July this year with cash and arrested them. Reacting to the allegations, state BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash said the law is taking its course and people should not intervene needlessly.