'Welcome search party': Chidambaram on I-T raids

Congress leader P Chidambaram has accused the government of planning Income Tax raids at his residences to "cripple the election campaign".

In a series of tweets, Chidambaram on Sunday "welcomed" the search party to raid his Sivaganga and Chennai homes. "I have been told that the Income Tax department has plans to raid my residence in Sivaganga constituency and in Chennai. We will welcome the search party!" tweeted Chidambaram.

" I have been told that the I-T department has plans to raid my residence in Sivaganga constituency and in Chennai. We will welcome the search party," tweeted the Congress leader.

Notably, Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram, who is out on bail in the INX Media corruption case, is contesting from Sivaganga in the upcoming polls.

"The IT department knows that we have nothing to hide. They and other agencies have searched our residences before and found nothing. The intention is to cripple the election campaign," he added.

The Congress leader threatened to give a "fitting lesson" in the ensuing elections. "People are watching the excesses of this government," he said.

Congress has stitched a formidable alliance with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and will contest nine out of 39 parliamentary seats in Tamil Nadu along with the lone seat in Puducherry, while DMK will contest 20 seats. The rest of the seats have been allocated to the other alliance partners of DMK namely CPI(M), CPI, MDMK, VCK, IUML, KMDK and IJK.

Tamil Nadu will go to polls on April 18.