Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday claimed that Income Tax officials had asked state Energy Minister DK Shivakumar to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, The Times of India reported. In August, I-T officials had raided Shivakumar’s properties for three days in a case of tax evasion.

Siddaramaiah’s comments come ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled in the state in 2018.

The chief minister was speaking at a rally as part of the Congress’s “Black Day” against demonetisation in Bengaluru on Wednesday. He alleged that the tax officials had asked Shivakumar to join the BJP to “avoid nuisances” like the raids.

“The Centre has been using the CBI, the I-T department and the Enforcement Directorate, all under its control, to threaten people,” the chief minister claimed, according to The Times of India. “Earlier this year, when Shivakumar was raided by the I-T department, its officials who were part of the team openly asked him to join the BJP. This is the level of saffronisation in the country.”

During the raids, investigators are believed to have recovered more than Rs 300 crore in undisclosed income and cash and jewellery worth nearly Rs 15 crore, unidentified officials in the department had said in August.

Shivakumar was hosting several Gujarat Congress MLAs at a Bengaluru resort at the time of the raids. The Congress had sent them to the lodge allegedly to stop them from being poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party before the Rajya Sabha polls held on August 8.

On August 30, the I-T Department said it had conducted raids at 10 more locations in Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi, following up on the case connected with Shivakumar.