New Delhi, Jan 9 (NationPress) On Friday, a group of eight Trinamool Congress MPs organized a protest outside the office of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the capital. The MPs displayed placards proclaiming, “Bengal rejects Modi-Shah’s dirty politics” and accused the central government of using central agencies to target opposition parties.

The MPs participating in the demonstration included Derek O’Brien, Satabdi Roy, Mahua Moitra, Bapi Haldar, Saket Gokhale, Pratima Mondal, Kirti Azad, and Dr. Sharmila Sarkar. This protest coincided with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s upcoming rally in Kolkata against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids targeting the political consultancy firm I-PAC.

During the protest, the Trinamool Congress MPs raised slogans, alleging that the BJP-led government was misusing investigative agencies to intimidate opposition ahead of the elections. Visuals from the scene depicted MPs with placards denouncing what they termed as “dirty politics” of the Modi administration.

Both Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra were briefly detained by police while protesting, as security personnel sought to prevent them from obstructing access to the office.

After his detention, Derek O’Brien remarked, “Why are we being detained? Just look at this. You can see what is going on with Amit Shah’s Delhi Police. All our MPs have been taken into custody.”

This protest followed a series of raids by the ED on Thursday at the Kolkata office of I-PAC and the residence of its chief and co-founder, Pratik Jain. CM Mamata Banerjee was seen visiting the locations of the searches, accusing the central agency of attempting to “loot” sensitive documents linked to the Trinamool Congress.

In response to the ED raids, the Trinamool Congress, under the direction of party leader CM Mamata Banerjee, conducted protest rallies statewide on Thursday evening.

The ED’s search operations targeted the Salt Lake Sector V office of I-PAC, a political consultancy working for the Trinamool Congress since 2019, and also the residence of Pratik Jain.

Following these searches, CM Mamata Banerjee visited Jain’s residence and was seen leaving with documents and a laptop, which she stated belonged to the Trinamool Congress and were relevant to the party’s upcoming Assembly elections.

Later, she also visited the I-PAC office in Salt Lake, where police were observed removing files and diaries from the premises and placing them into her vehicle.

The West Bengal CM claimed that the ED, under the pretense of conducting raids, had effectively “looted” documents concerning the party’s electoral strategy, candidate lists, internal data, and financial papers.