The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday raided over three dozen places in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in connection with its probe into the liquor scam, prompting the Congress to scream political vendetta.

Among those raided include Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s political adviser Vinod Verma and two officers working with him —Manish Banchhor and Ashish Verma. The chief minister said the ED conducted raids in the state on persons close to him when the AICC plenary was being held in Raipur and he had information that this operation would continue till the election.

Baghel tweeted as the raids started in the morning: “Respected Prime Minister and Amit Shah ji. I am grateful to both of you for sendfing the gift of ED raids on my aides on the occasion of my birthday.”

Chhattisgarh will go to polls in two months. Congress president in Karnataka D.K. Shivakumar was earlier summoned by the central agencies in the midst of the election campaign.

Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal said: “Strongly condemn the ED raids on the staff members of Chhattisgarh chief minister. Completely out of race in the upcoming elections, the BJP is trying its dirtiest tricks to intimidate the Congress. However, we have the support of three crore people of Chhattisgarh and such cheap tactics will not affect us. They only show the BJP’s desperation.”