Rahul Gandhi hits out at BJP for raids on Stalin's son-in-law, calls it 'coping mechanism'

After the Income Tax department conducted raids at Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief MK Stalin's daughter and son-in-law Senthamarai and Sabareesan's residence on April 2, Friday, many political leaders came forward and reacted, the most recent among which is Rahul Gandhi. The former Congress President took to his official Twitter handle to call out the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that it was the saffron party's 'coping mechanism' when facing electoral defeat. 

Earlier in the day, Stalin also came forward to talk about the raids, and affirm that such incidents will not 'scare' him. Addressing a public meeting in Perambalur, he said," Today morning I came to Trichy from Chennai. I got news of a raid going on at my daughter's house in Chennai. Modi government is saving the AIADMK government now. I want to tell Modi that this is DMK, don't forget that, I'm the son of Kalaignar. I'll not be scared with this."

Meanwhile, in connection to the raids, a letter has been submitted to the Chief Election Commissioner by the party. "The IT department has been used as a sword and as a pawn in the hands of the ruling BJP party and there are no reasons as to why these searched are being conducted few days ahead of elections," the party has stated in the letter.

Stalin's son-in-law, daughter under IT scanner 

In the early hours of April 2, a team of around 30 IT sleuths searched four places connected to the DMK in Chennai, including the coast-side residence of Senthamarai and Sabareesan and another residential complex owned by the couple, where reportedly, election strategist Prashant Kishor used to hold strategy meetings. The residence of the son of DMKs candidate from Anna Nagar has also been searched. 

This comes ahead of assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, which is slated to be held on April 6. For the elections, the EPS-OPS-led AIADMK has joined hands with the BJP, PMK and other smaller parties to put up strong competition against MK Stalin-led DMK that is working in alliance with Congress, CPI, MDMK, VCK, IUML and MMK, and come back to power. The DMK that won 38 out of 39 seats in the Lok Sabha elections would, however not be easy to defeat. 

(Credits-PTI/ANI)