The Trinamul Congress on Friday complained to the Election Commission of India against the Narendra Modi government for allegedly misusing investigation agencies to hound the ruling party in Bengal, thereby disrupting its campaign for the Lok Sabha polls.

“At a time when the MCC (model code of conduct) is in place, we can see that central agencies have been activated in Bengal, according to the political directives of the central government. For instance, the CBI and the ED recently reached the residences of our candidate Mahua Moitra, minister Chandranath Sinha and our councillor Jui Biswas. The IT department also carried out similar visits,” Bengal industry minister Shashi Panja said after submitting the memorandum at the Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi.

“The commission received our letter and assured us that they would have a detailed discussion with us on this issue on Monday,” Panja said, adding that those searches were “tricks” by the BJP to stop the candidates from campaigning.

Later in the day, Trinamul leader Kunal Ghosh in a post on his X handle claimed that two BJP leaders had met NIA SP D.R. Singh and handed over a list of Trinamul officials and workers for immediate summons, raids and arrests.

The BJP has rejected the allegation.

“From where did Kunal Ghosh get all this information? Was he in touch with Suvendu Adhikari or Sukanta Majumdar? Actually, Ghosh knows the whereabouts of all Trinamul Congress leaders. He knows a lot of things and so he has said this,” BJP state chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya said.

The commission issued a directive prohibiting the use of photos or videos of India’s national cricket team for electoral campaigning. This instruction was specifically aimed at Yusuf Pathan, the Trinamul Congress candidate in Behrampore.

The commission’s directive follows a complaint filed by the Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, alleging that the World Cup-winning (T20 in 2007, ODI in 2011) cricketer was exploiting national sentiment for political gains by using pictures of him with his then teammates, such as cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.

The commission asked Pathan to remove all such photos immediately.

In another development, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh, who had been showcaused by the commission for his derogatory remarks against chief minister Mamata Banerjee sent an email to the panel on Friday expressing remorse.