The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on January 8, conducted coordinated searches at multiple locations in Kolkata, including the Salt Lake office of the India Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and the residence of its co-founder Pratik Jain. These were the first ED raids in West Bengal this year and came months ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
The ED maintained that “no premises of any political party has been raided.” However, I-PAC has been closely associated with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) since 2020 and is widely known to be managing its election strategy for the upcoming polls.
Within hours of the searches, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at Jain’s residence while the raid was still underway. Accusing the central government of political vendetta, she alleged that ED officials attempted to seize sensitive election strategy material. Walking out with a green folder containing documents, hard disks and mobile phones, Banerjee claimed these were the TMC’s “blueprint” for the 2026 elections.
The ED has since accused the Chief Minister of obstruction and approached the Calcutta High Court. Pratik Jain has also moved the High Court, alleging that neither he nor I-PAC has any role in the case and that he is being falsely implicated.
Familiar Script In Bengal Politics
This confrontation - central agency action followed by high-profile political intervention is not unprecedented in West Bengal. At least three major episodes underline a striking pattern of timing and optics.
The first dates back to February 3, 2019, when the CBI attempted to question then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund probe. The move led to a dramatic standoff between the CBI and the state police. Mamata Banerjee arrived at the officer’s residence, later staging a dharna accusing the agency of acting on political instructions. The episode unfolded weeks before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The second occurred on February 23, 2021, barely three months before the West Bengal Assembly polls. Mamata Banerjee visited the residence of her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, shortly before a CBI team arrived to examine his wife, Rujira Banerjee, in the coal smuggling case. Images of the Chief Minister’s presence at the family home ahead of a federal probe once again brought Centre–state tensions into sharp focus.
The third episode is the present I-PAC raid - once again unfolding in the run-up to a crucial election, once again marked by the Chief Minister’s on-the-spot intervention, and once again raising allegations that enforcement agencies are being deployed as political tools.
What the data and defections suggest -
Opposition parties frequently cite a broader statistical pattern: that nearly 98% of ED cases involving politicians target leaders from opposition parties, while the remaining fraction concerns those who later aligned with the ruling BJP. While this figure is a political claim rather than an official audit, it reflects a widespread perception of disproportionate targeting since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.
Several high-profile cases reinforce this narrative. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED in January 2024, months before the state’s assembly elections. He resigned, fought the polls later that year, and returned to office with a renewed mandate. Similarly, former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested in March 2024 in the alleged liquor policy case, just weeks before the Lok Sabha elections.
Equally telling are cases where investigations appear to have slowed after political realignment - a phenomenon critics describe as the “washing machine” effect, a phrase popularised by Mamata Banerjee.
In Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar split from the Sharad Pawar-led NCP in 2023 to join an NDA-aligned government. While not all cases against him were dropped, opposition parties argue that the political context around enforcement changed significantly after the defection.
In West Bengal, BJP Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari is named in the same Narada sting FIR that led to the arrest of several senior TMC leaders, including Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, in May 2021. Adhikari had left the TMC in December 2020 and joined the BJP amid corruption allegations.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma presents another frequently cited case. He was questioned by the CBI in 2014 in connection with the Saradha scam while he was a Congress leader. He joined the BJP in 2015 and later became Chief Minister; opposition parties allege that cases against him have since remained dormant.
In Maharashtra, former Congress Chief Minister Ashok Chavan joined the BJP in February 2024. He had earlier been named in the Adarsh Housing Society case, with a CBI chargesheet filed in 2012. The political implications of his defection were widely noted.
Optics Vs Institutional Trust
Three structural factors make such episodes politically explosive. First, electoral timing: agency action close to elections inevitably acquires political meaning, regardless of legal merit. Second, data sensitivity: modern campaigns are data-driven, and allegations of seizures involving strategy documents or candidate lists deepen fears of misuse. Third, perception versus proof: while patterns are visible, definitive causality remains difficult to establish, leaving institutions vulnerable to credibility erosion.
The January 2026 I-PAC episode thus fits a familiar choreography - raids, political intervention, court battles and polarised narratives raising once again a fundamental question for India’s democracy: can enforcement agencies remain insulated from electoral politics, or have they become inseparable from it?
