New Delhi, Mar 21 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday accused the Congress-led UPA of misusing the CBI to threaten its allies into forcibly supporting them.

"It is a proven fact that the government (UPA), to stay in power, has been using the CBI to continue their strength in the government," BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy told news channel Times Now.

"When the alliance partners are leaving them, they are using their authority against them. It is a sharp message to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party that if you leave the Congress party, you will meet the same fate. So, it a veiled threat," he added.

Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the "government was surviving in power on the crutches of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate".

Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday carried out a search at the residence of M.K. Stalin, son of DMK chief M.K. Karunanidhi, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The search comes two days after the DMK announced its decision to pull out of the central government and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), dissatisfied with the centre's stand on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

The Samajwadi Party, whose support to the UPA government has become crucial after the DMK's exit from the coalition, has been playing hard with the government and seeking Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma's resignation after he publicly rebuked Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"Strongly disapproving" the CBI's search at the residence of Stalin, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said that the move was bound to be "misunderstood".