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NEW DELHI: Several Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, including MPs Mahua Moitra and Derek O’Brien, were detained by Delhi police on Friday while protesting outside Union home minister Amit Shah’s residence and office. The protest was staged against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids conducted at the office of the political consultancy firm I-PAC in Kolkata on Thursday. TMC MPs gathered with placards reading “Bengal rejects Modi-Shah’s dirty politics”, highlighting their opposition to the ED action, which they termed politically motivated and aimed at intimidating the party ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections. Speaking to the media during the protest, Mahua Moitra said, “Yesterday, entire India, Bengal witnessed how ED was misused by the Home Ministry. The ED was sent to steal our party’s political, strategic information. Mamata Banerjee is a lioness, she protected our party’s properties.” TMC MP Kirti Azad added, “They are acting undemocratically; even the raid was illegal. They loot and accuse us of scams. They took away our strategy and candidate lists. BJP’s internal survey shows they won’t get more than 25 seats. But Mamata Banerjee will secure a massive mandate as CM and go on to become the Prime Minister.” The protest comes ahead of a planned march in Delhi led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee will lead the march from Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand to Hazra More at 2 pm to protest the ED raids, news agency PTI reported.The raids at I-PAC offices targeted two locations in Kolkata on Thursday. Apart from providing political consultancy to TMC, I-PAC manages the party’s IT and media operations, making the action sensitive for the party’s electoral preparations. Banerjee visited the I-PAC premises during the ongoing search, accusing the central agency of attempting to seize internal documents, hard disks, and digital data linked to the party’s election strategy.The TMC has described the ED action as politically motivated harassment, intensifying the standoff between the ruling party in West Bengal and the Union government ahead of the assembly elections.
