India’s Congress party accuses government of freezing accounts before polls

The main opposition party says Modi government has ‘crippled’ it before the upcoming election by freezing bank accounts in an income tax case.

The Congress party, India’s main opposition political group, has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of stifling democracy and “crippling” the party by freezing its bank accounts in a tax dispute ahead of the general election.

India will hold a six-week election starting next month, with the Congress-led alliance pitted against Modi’s heavily funded Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Thursday told reporters in New Delhi the party is unable to campaign properly with its accounts frozen by the income tax department.

“Our entire financial identity has been erased,” said Gandhi, 53, the scion of the family that dominated Indian politics for decades after independence.

“We have no money to campaign, we cannot support our candidates. Our ability to fight elections has been damaged.”

All our bank accounts have been frozen. We cannot do our campaign work. We cannot support our workers and candidates. Our leaders cannot travel from one part of the country to the other. We're unable to put out our ads.

This is being done two months before the election campaign.… pic.twitter.com/Y3gaMDER8r

— Congress (@INCIndia) March 21, 2024

A portion of the Congress’s bank accounts were frozen last month pending a tax case that dates back to 2018-19. Earlier this month, a tax tribunal dismissed its appeal to pause the recovery of 1.35bn rupees ($16.32m) in income tax from its bank accounts.

Congress treasurer Ajay Maken said in a statement that tax authorities imposed a 2.1bn rupee ($25m) lien on February 13, “virtually sealed” its bank accounts, and then