Kanimozhi slams freezing of Congress's bank accounts

Chennai: DMK leader and Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi on Friday strongly criticised the freezing of Congress's main bank accounts, claiming it reflects BJP's fear of engaging in the electoral process democratically.

The bank accounts of the Indian National Congress were frozen over an income tax demand of Rs 210 crore but an I-T appellate tribunal later allowed the party to operate them pending a further hearing next week -- a huge relief for the outfit which said the move had impacted all political activity.

"I strongly condemn the freezing of the Congress and Youth Congress bank accounts mere weeks before the elections in India, the largest democracy. This action unmistakably reflects a fear of the BJP engaging in the electoral process democratically," Kanimozhi said in a post on social media platform X.

Meanwhile, addressing a public meeting at Ottapidaram in her Thoothukudi constituency on Thursday, she said the opposition INDIA bloc will win the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

"India will lose if BJP retains power. Their victory is this country's loss," she remarked.

Though the BJP is now claiming it would win over 400 seats in the hustings, "we have to be confident that there will be a regime change," she said and referred to the saffron party's loss in recent state elections including Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.

She also pointed out that the BJP received over Rs 6,000 crore in electoral bonds, as revealed in RTIs.

Electoral bonds were introduced by the BJP-led government in the 2017-18 union budget and were used by corporates and individuals to fund political parties, whereby the parties need not disclose who their donors are.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds as unconstitutional.