TDP MP Jayadev Galla, who is the brother-in-law of superstar Mahesh Babu, has alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a deliberate attempt to influence polls courtesy the IT raids being conducted on opposition leaders.
The Income Tax department has been conducting raids on the offices of various political leaders across the country for the past few weeks. These raids are meant to stop the alleged cash flow during the 2019 general elections. The latest person to come under the scanner of the IT sleuths is none other than Jayadev Galla, whose office in Guntur was raided on Tuesday evening.
Jayadev Galla is contesting Lok Sabha elections in Guntur from the second time and Andhra Pradesh goes for the first phase of polls. Just a day before the voting, this TDP leader came under the IT scanner.
Jayadev Galla reportedly protested the searches along with other Telugu Desam Party leaders in Guntur's Pattabhipuram. "Why I am being targeted? Why is the TDP being targeted?" he asked. "This is a deliberate attempt by Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] to influence the polls. Moving towards state of Emergency and fascism," NDTV quoted the TDP leader as saying.
But hours before the IT raid on Jayadev Galla's office on Tuesday, Rajnath Singh had dismissed the opposition's charges. "It is unfair to hold the government responsible for the raids. This is an ongoing process. Agencies act on their own intelligence inputs," Union Home Minister had said in an interview to ANI.
Jayadev Galla is one of the wealthiest politicians in India and he had declared assets of Rs 683 crore in the 2014 general elections. He married Padmavathi Ghattamaneni, daughter of superstar Krishna on 26 June 1991 and has two children – Siddharth Galla and Ashok Galla. He is very close to his brother-in-law Mahesh Babu, who had campaigned for him in the previous general elections.
