India elections: Opposition claims bank accounts are frozen

• The Income Tax Department seized the party’s accounts as part of an investigation into the 2018-19 tax filing.
• The party’s activities, including the “Unite India” march, will suffer effects.
• Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, initiated the march.

On Friday, the Indian National Congress, India’s main opposition party, announced that the government had frozen its funds, just weeks before the country holds general elections.

Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken informed reporters that the Income Tax Department had seized the party’s accounts as part of an investigation into the tax filing in the financial year 2018-19 and issued a payment demand for 2.1 billion rupees ($25.3 million) concerning the probe.

He admitted that the party had filed its return 45 days late but criticized the move as unwarranted just weeks before the elections.

“When the opposition’s accounts are frozen, it is equivalent to freezing the democracy,” Maken said.

“We don’t have any money to spend, to pay electricity bills, to pay salaries to our employees.”

Later on Friday, an income tax tribunal temporarily granted the party access to its funds ahead of a hearing next week. However, more than $10.3 million remained frozen.

“This … is much more than we have in our current accounts,” Maken said.

He stated that the party’s activities would be affected, including the 6,700 km “Unite India” march across the country, which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi began last month in a last-ditch effort to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid for a third term in office as the general election is expected to take place between April and May.

Gandhi, a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which has given India four prime ministers and been seen as the main opponent to Modi’s rule, initiated the march.

Last year, he was convicted of defaming Modi and excluded from parliament, with his membership reinstated only after Supreme Court intervention.