Congress protest outside Minister Shivakumar's residence over I-T raids

Earlier in the morning, the Income Tax officers raided Karnataka Energy Minister's property, where 44 Gujarat Congress lawmakers are presently staying, reports said.

I-T Department officers raided DK Shivakumar's properties, including homes in Kanakapura and Sadashivanagar and his Eagleton Golf Resort, where the MLAs are staying.

The Congress flew in 44 of its Gujarat lawmakers to Bengaluru ahead of Aug eight Rajya Sabha polls.

The party has accused BJP of poaching its lawmakers.

Congress has also accused the  Gujarat government of trying to lure 22 Congress lawmakers by offering Rs 15 crores and asking them for cross-voting during the polls.

In a latest development,  DK Shivakumar's relative's house in Mysore has been raided by the Income Tax Department officials.

Dismissing the claims of using state machinery to target the opposition parties, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said  no Congress MLAs from Gujarat were searched in the Bengaluru resort.

Brushing off the claims made by the Congress, Jaitley said the raids had to take place in the resort since the Karnataka minister "parked" himself there.

However, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah called the I-T raids a political vendetta against the Congress and also accused the central government of violating the rules by using the CRPF during the raids.

The CM even summoned top cops of the state to brief on the whole issue.

Image: Official Facebook page of Siddaramaiah.