Abhishek Banerjee alleges I-T officials searched his chopper, tax officials deny

Lok Sabha elections: TMC alleged that I-T officials entered into a verbal spat with Abhishek Banerjee's security personnel and threatened to detain his chopper

The Trinamool Congress on Sunday alleged that its general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's chopper was raided by Income Tax Department officials in Kolkata's Behala flying club.

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee is contesting from Diamond Harbour seat in the Lok Sabha elections.

According to the TMC, the I-T officials searched the chopper while restraining its security officials. The party alleged that the tax officials did not let the chopper fly for the longest time and also entered into a verbal spat with the Diamond Harbour MP's security personnel while threatening to detain the chopper.

“These actions are testament to the fact that BJP is trembling when it comes to Bengal and across the country, by hook or by crook, they want to wipe out the opposition in a bid to come to power again,” the TMC said in a statement.

“But AITC will take the Bangla-Birodhi BJP head-on and we won't budge an inch because of these intimidating tactics carried out by Central agencies on the instructions of their Delhi bosses,” the party added.

Shortly, Banerjee also took to social media platform X and said,"Instead of removing the @NIA_India DG and SP, @ECISVEEP and@BJP4India chose to deploy MINIONS FROM IT to search and raid my chopper and security personnel today, resulting in NO FINDINGS. The ZAMINDARS can exert all thr might but Bengal's SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE will never waver."

The Income Tax department denied any search taking place. "The Income-Tax Department has not conducted any “search, raid, survey or any other enforcement action” with respect to any helicopter or aircraft as alleged by Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, a government official with direct knowledge of the matter told HT.

The Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal will take place across all 7 phases, starting April 19. The counting of votes has been scheduled for June 4.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC won 34 seats in the state, while the BJP had to settle for 2 seats. The CPI (M) won 2 seats, while the Congress bagged 4.

However, the BJP came up with a much-improved showing in the 2019 polls, winning 18 seats against the TMC's 22. The Congress's tally dropped to just 2 seats, while the Left scored a blank.