Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Congress leader Alka Lamba on Thursday said the BJP-led Union government may use the Enforcement Directorate to conduct raids against members of her party in Madhya Pradesh, where Assembly polls will be held on November 17.
Lamba alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party was using ED, Income Tax Department, Central Bureau of Investigation and other constitutional bodies as "election weapons" against opposition parties.
The ED is already active in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, both Congress ruled states that will also have Assembly polls next month, she pointed out.
"The ED has reached Rajasthan during the ongoing Assembly elections. ED work is already going on in Chhattisgarh. Now ED is welcome in Madhya Pradesh and we are ready to defeat BJP as well as ED here," Congress national spokesperson Lamba said at the Indore Press Club.
"We are fully aware that raids are going to be conducted against us in Madhya Pradesh as well. It is the ED that is making the BJP contest the elections," she claimed.
Queried on the Congress not aligning with the Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party for the MP Assembly polls despite these parties being part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), she said the opposition bloc was formed for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"As far as Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections are concerned, the Congress is in direct contest with the BJP. The Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party and all other constituents of the INDIA bloc have full freedom to contest the state Assembly elections on their own," Lamba asserted.
She said everyone was eagerly waiting for the installation of Lord Ram's idol in the upcoming temple in Ayodhya on January 22, but the BJP was making the place, which is associated with the fate of crores of people, into a political arena.
President Droupadi Murmu and former president Ram Nath Kovind must also be invited for the event, Lamba added.
