New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday described the freezing of its INDIA bloc partner Congress’s bank accounts as an “attack on democracy” and slammed the BJP-led Centre for the action.
At a press conference here, senior AAP leaders and ministers in the Delhi government, Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj, said the freezing of the back accounts of the Congress party was a direct attempt to “influence” elections.
“The Lok Sabha election could be announced anytime. Hence, the freezing of the Congress’s bank accounts is illegal and undemocratic,” Bharadwaj said.
The main bank accounts of the Congress were frozen on Friday over an income-tax demand for Rs 210 crore, but an I-T appellate tribunal later allowed the party to operate the accounts, pending a further hearing next week.
Atishi claimed that after the Congress, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre will also get the bank accounts of other opposition parties, including the AAP and Trinamool Congress (TMC), frozen.
“First they put big opposition leaders in jail using the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and now, they are making it difficult for the opposition to contest elections by freezing their accounts,” she said.
Earlier, elections were rigged through booth capturing and now, the same is happening by eliminating opposition parties, Atishi alleged.
Bharadwaj claimed that after electoral bonds were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme court, it was revealed that the BJP got Rs 6,566 crore and the AAP just Rs 94 crore from corporate houses as funds.
The BJP should disclose the names of the corporate houses and companies that funded the party and what benefits did its governments provide them in return, he said. PTI VIT RC
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