Congress contestant flays tax raids in Bengaluru

Congress candidate Rizwan Arshad for the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat on Thursday condemned the day-long Income-Tax raids conducted at his office and some of his associates across the city.

"The raids on me and some of my associates in the city are meant to harass me and obstruct my peaceful campaign for the April 18 polling. The BJP is misusing the tax office to intimidate opposition parties and their leaders in Karnataka and across the country," Arshad told reporters.

Arshad is a second-time contestant against BJP's outgoing member P.C. Mohan in the prestigious constituency and is supported by his party's ally Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S). He lost to Mohan in the 2014 general election.

"By allowing tax raids on me and my associates, the BJP-led government thinks it can scare us. The huge response to my campaign in the constituency has unnerved my opponent, as the people want a change and are waiting to vote him out because he did nothing for them since he won in 2009 elections," recalled Arshad.

Noting that the people in the constituency were fed up with Mohan for letting them down despite electing him twice and making tall promises, Arshad said the common complaint was the MP was hardly seen in the area, not accessible to them, did not improve their quality of life by doing anything for better civic amenities, infrastructure development or meeting their basic needs.

"There are several complaints from the people in the constituency against Mohan and his party. Traffic snarls, water shortage and woeful public transport are some of the problems he had not cared to address them. As there is no development in the city, people want change this time," he claimed.

As Mohan did not agree for a town hall debate with him anywhere in the constituency, Arshad said he had invited the former to debate on social media platform Twitter, as a sizeable electorate was active on Twitter and they could judge who is the best to represent them in Parliament this time.

Mohan was not available to respond to Arshad's charges, as he was electioneering in the city.

--IANS

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