Close on the heels of the raids on Kannauj perfume trader Piyush Jain leading to seizure of huge cash, gold ,silver and sandalwood oil, the Income Tax Department on Friday raided the premises of another perfume trader and Samajwadi Party MLC Pushpraj Jain Pampi at Kannauj and 50 other locations across the country.

The opposition Samajwadi Party responded to the raids on Twitter: "After a huge failure last time, this time BJP's ultimate ally IT (Income Tax Department) has finally raided the place of SP MLC Pushpraj Jain and other perfume traders of Kannauj. Open misuse of central agencies by the scared BJP is common in UP elections. People are watching everything, they will answer by vote."

Later, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who was in Kannauj on Friday, said “we were expecting raids and it has happened”.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party is spreading the smell of hatred in UP. The impending defeat of the BJP in UP assembly elections has rattled the ruling party and they have gone berserk. The BJP leaders along with their allies like CBI, Enforcement Directorate, are now campaigning in Uttar Pradesh,” the SP chief said in Kannauj.

Akhilesh Yadav alleged that “SP MLC Pushpraj Jain has been targeted to malign the Samajwadi Party and the BJP has targeted the SP leader only to compensate for the mistaken raid on Piyush Jai who is close to BJP”.

Moreover, Akhilesh Yadav claimed that “the raids on perfume traders of Kannauj is a conspiracy to malign Kannauj and the perfume industry”.

He added, “The SP will form the next government in UP and restore the glory of Kannauj and the perfume industry maligned by the BJP government.”

Asserting that the Vijay Rath of the Samajwadi Party would not stop and continue its journey, Akhilesh Yadav said, “I will take up the matter with the Election Commission of India and other authorities to apprise them that the BJP is deliberately targeting the opposition parties to malign them ahead of the UP assembly elections.”

Coming in the middle of a high-pitch election campaign, the raids have turned into a political slugfest with the BJP and SP accusing each other of backing the jailed perfume trader. The BJP had alleged that it was Piyush Jain who recently launched the Samajwadi perfume.

Taking a swipe at the opposition party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Kanpur Nagar on Wednesday, "Boxes filled with notes have come out. The people of Kanpur understand business and trade well. Before 2017, the perfume of corruption that they had sprinkled all over Uttar Pradesh is there for everyone to see."

Hitting back, Akhilesh Yadav has said that the BJP mixed up businessman Piyush Jain with Samajwadi Party's Pushpraj Jain, who launched the perfume named after the party. Denying any link with Piyush Jain, he said the BJP got "its own businessman raided by mistake".

Sources from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), however, have junked the mistaken identity theory. They have said they received specific inputs regarding alleged tax evasion by the Shikhar Pan Masala group. A probe led them to transport company Ganpati Road Carriers and Piyush Jain's Odochem Industries, the sources said.