New Delhi: As West Bengal enters the final phases of its assembly elections, central investigative agencies have intensified operations targeting the campaign machinery and candidates of the ruling Trinamool Congress.The Enforcement Directorate maintains its actions are evidence-driven efforts to ensure free and fair elections, and are aimed solely at tackling financial crimes. However, opposition parties have long since alleged that the Union government is deploying these agencies to intimidate political rivals, pointing to data that indicates a sharp focus on non-aligned leaders and a heavily delayed trial process under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.Bengal operationsBetween March 28 and April 19, 2026, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted close to 20 operations involving property attachments and interrogations. The agency searched more than 50 premises across six cities and summoned nine people for questioning in connection with cases registered in Bengal.The most prominent investigation targets the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), the consultancy firm managing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) election strategy. On January 7 and 8, the ED searched 10 locations in Kolkata and Delhi, including the residence of I-PAC director Pratik Jain. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses the media after she arrived at the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain amid an ongoing ED raid, in Kolkata. Photo: AITC Media Cell via PTI.Agency sources cited fresh evidence tracing back to a November 2020 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) first information report concerning alleged illegal mining and coal theft from Eastern Coalfields Limited areas. The ED subsequently registered a fresh case against I-PAC based on a Delhi Police FIR. This stemmed from an ED reference alleging that proceeds of crime worth approximately Rs 50 crore were routed to I-PAC through business channels.Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Jain’s residence during the raids alongside senior police officials. The TMC alleged central agencies were overreaching and unlawfully taking away laptops and files. During a hearing in mid-April, the Supreme Court criticised Ms. Banerjee’s intervention, stating that a Chief Minister interfering in an active probe puts “democracy in peril” and creates a “situation of lawlessness.”Following this, the agency arrested I-PAC director Vinesh Chandel on April 13 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Chandel’s assets were subsequently attached, and summons were issued to Jain’s family members. I-PAC has denied reports that it has shut operations, though the actions have directly impacted the ruling party’s election machinery.Focus on candidates and ministersSimultaneously, the Income Tax (I-T) Department and the ED have acted against multiple TMC leaders and associates in the immediate run-up to the polls.On April 17, I-T officials searched the premises of Rashbehari Member of Legislative Assembly Debasish Kumar and another person associated with the TMC, the vice-chairman of The Bhawanipur Education Society College, Miraj D. Shah. Shah was a proposer for Banerjee from the Bhabanipur constituency, which votes in the second phase on April 29. Kumar, who is contesting against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s journalist-turned-politician Swapan Dasgupta, had earlier been questioned by the ED on March 30 and April 3.The Rashbehari seat holds significant political weight. The TMC has held the constituency since its inception in 2011. Former MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay held the seat until 2021 before shifting to Bhabanipur, a seat he later vacated for Banerjee after her defeat to Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram. For the current election, Union home minister Amit Shah campaigned for Dasgupta in the constituency.According to I-T officials, the searches were initiated over discrepancies detected between the assets Kumar declared in his poll affidavit and those found during operations. Officials reported seizing unaccounted diamond jewellery, gold, and bullion valued at approximately Rs 1.75 crore, alongside Rs 6 lakh in cash from a business entity in which the MLA is a partner.At Shah’s premises, officials recovered 8.08 kg of bullion bearing foreign hallmarks. The department has issued notices to Kumar and Shah seeking explanations regarding the source of the assets. The findings have been shared with the Election Commission, the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to examine potential Customs law violations. Income Tax officials stated that a revision of Kumar’s earlier assessment is also being carried out.Other notable agency actions in the state include:January 3: The ED attached assets worth Rs 3.65 crore linked to minister Chandranath Sinha in a primary teachers’ recruitment scam, stemming from a CBI FIR filed on Calcutta High Court directions, in connection with which searches were conducted in March 2024.March 20: Searches at 16 premises linked to Technosolis Informatics Limited resulted in reported seizures of fixed deposits, gold, cryptocurrency, and documents allegedly worth over Rs 20 crore. The agency explicitly described the action as its “contribution towards ensuring free and fair elections.”April 9 and 19: Raids at eight premises linked to Biswajit Podder, alias Sona Pappu, led to his arrest on April 19. Further searches targeted Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) Shantanu Sinha Biswas in a probe involving allegations ranging from extortion and land grabbing to money laundering.April 11: Fresh searches were conducted at premises linked to former Industries and Education Minister Partha Chatterjee concerning a long-running teacher recruitment scam.April 22: Summons were issued to actor and former Member of Parliament Nusrat Jahan regarding a 2014-15 housing fraud case, alongside senior bureaucrats in the Education Department over recruitment irregularities.April 23: TMC Ministers Sujit Bose and Rathin Ghosh were summoned over alleged illegal appointments across multiple municipal bodies since 2014.National patternsThis pattern of pre-election agency action extends to other states governed by opposition parties.In Punjab, where elections are scheduled for next year, the ED conducted searches on April 15 at over 10 locations linked to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament Ashok Kumar Mittal, coinciding with his appointment as the party’s deputy leader in the Upper House. Two days later, premises linked to AAP minister Sanjeev Arora were searched in an alleged fund round-tripping probe under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. This follows the earlier pre-election incarceration of senior AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and Sanjay Singh in Delhi.In Kerala, searches took place across 21 locations in January 2026 regarding a Sabarimala-linked gold misappropriation case. The ED is also investigating the Karuvannur cooperative bank scam, in which several Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders are allegedly involved. In 2025, the agency sent notices to the political outfit Twenty20, which is aligned with the BJP now; the group denied its moves were related to the ED case.In Tamil Nadu, the ED’s investigation into alleged irregularities linked to TASMAC transactions remains a point of sharp political exchange. The opposition has framed the issue as a ₹1,000-crore politically motivated scam, and the Supreme Court stayed the probe in May 2025.Statistical realities and the PMLAOpposition members point to a statistical concentration of central agency actions to argue their case. An investigation tracking 121 prominent politicians probed by the ED between 2014 and 2022 revealed that 115 belonged to the opposition. The number of ED cases registered against politicians increased fourfold after 2014. Researchers tracking these proceedings note that investigations against opposition figures are frequently delayed or stalled if they align themselves with the ruling party.The Union Government frequently defends the ED’s operations by citing a conviction rate of 94.82%. However, parliamentary replies from the Ministry of Finance in February 2026 clarify the basis of this calculation.Data Focus: ED Cases (ECIRs) versus Convictions (2014 to December 2025)Financial YearECIRs RecordedTrial ConvictionsAccused Convicted2014-15181002015-16110002016-17187222017-18163222018-19152482019-20557472020-21996112021-221,116342022-239539242023-2469813192024-257759382025-26 (till Dec 2025)620818Total (since 2014)6,50855123Source: Ministry of Finance Parliamentary Replies (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1539 and Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 412, February 2026)Since the PMLA’s inception in 2005, a total of 8,391 Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs) have been registered. The 94.82% figure is derived strictly from the 58 cases decided on merit, which resulted in 55 convictions. If calculated against the total number of registered ECIRs, the proportion of cases resulting in a conviction stands at 0.65%.Data further indicates that in over 67% of PMLA cases, trials have not commenced. Legal experts attribute the prolonged pre-trial detention to Section 45 of the PMLA. The statute imposes twin conditions for bail, requiring a judge to be satisfied that the accused is prima facie not guilty and is unlikely to commit an offence while on bail. Because the burden of proof rests on the accused during the bail stage, opposition leaders and strategists can be detained indefinitely without trial.The ED disclosed that 74% of the accused currently in custody were arrested in 2023 and 2024, the immediate run-up to the general elections. Furthermore, over 55% of all Prosecution Complaints – the ED’s equivalent of a chargesheet – were filed after 2022, underscoring the clustering of agency activity ahead of critical polling phases.