New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department, both under the Narendra Modi government’s control, raided opposition politicians of the Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress today, April 17.PunjabThe ED searched the Ludhiana house of Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora and properties connected to his relatives and associates. Reports say that Arora’s son Kavya, and his business partners Hemanth Sood in Ludhiana and Chandrasekhar Aggarwal in Jalandhar were subjected to the raids.This is the second time in a week that the ED has taken action against an AAP leader. On April 15, it conducted searched the premises of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Kumar Mittal and the Lovely Professional University, of which he is the founder, days after he was appointed AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.Last year, the Union government of the Bharatiya Janata Party – which controls the Enforcement Directorate – said in parliament that in the more than 190 Enforcement Directorate cases against political leaders in the last 10 years, only two have resulted in conviction.BengalIn poll-bound Bengal, Income Tax officials raided the residence of Miraj Shah, an aid of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and TMC strongman Debashish Kumar. Kumar is the party’s candidate for the Rashbehari assembly seat in Kolkata.Shah was one of the proposers for Banerjee when she went to submit her nomination papers from the Bhabanipur seat.Speaking at a political rally, Mamata strongly criticised the actions of central agencies. Local media reported Banerjee as having said that BJP leaders roam around with Z-plus security and “indulge in hooliganism with central forces, yet their security is never withdrawn.”The TMC supremo alleged that ahead of the assembly elections, the BJP is using central agencies and even the Election Commission for electoral gains.She further added, “I want to know how many BJP leaders’ houses have been searched.” Targeting the BJP, Banerjee also said, “They are sitting in Bengal with black money and they are raiding my candidate’s house and party offices! They even tried to search my plane. They are raiding my security personnel. Shameless! They cannot fight face-to-face. They are cowards.”