Soren resigned as chief minister Wednesday evening after over seven hours of questioning by the ED on money laundering charges linked to alleged land fraud. Thereafter, he was arrested by the agency.

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said “forcing” Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to resign after putting the Enforcement Directorate against him is “a blow to federalism”.

Soren resigned as chief minister Wednesday evening after over seven hours of questioning by the ED on money laundering charges linked to alleged land fraud. Thereafter, he was arrested by the agency.

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Targeting the government over the development, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that agencies such as the ED, CBI and the I-T Department “are no longer government agencies, now they have become BJP’s ‘eliminate opposition cell.”

In a post in Hindi on X, Congress chief Kharge said, “The one who did not go with (Narendra) Modi ji will go to jail. Putting ED against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and forcing him to resign is a blow to federalism.”

Intimidating opposition leaders by making the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) draconian is part of the BJP’s toolkit, he alleged.

The BJP’s work of destabilising opposition party-led governments one by one as part of a conspiracy is continuing, the Congress chief further alleged.

“What went into the BJP’s washing machine is clean as white, what didn’t is tainted? If democracy has to be saved from dictatorship then the BJP will have to be defeated. We will not be afraid. We will continue to fight from Parliament to streets,” he also said.

In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi alleged that in its obsession for power, “the BJP, which is steeped in corruption, is running a campaign to destroy democracy.”