Sonia Gandhi set to appear before ED; Congress to stage big show of strength

Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi is expected to appear before the ED in the alleged National Herald money laundering case on Thursday. Party insiders said AICC general secretary in charge of Organization KC Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been discussing strategy over summons for Sonia Gandhi with the senior leaders over the past few days.

New Delhi:The Congress is likely to stage a show of strength on Thursday when party chief Sonia Gandhi is expected to appear before the ED in the alleged National Herald money laundering case. The show of strength would be on the lines of one staged in support of former party chief Rahul Gandhi who had appeared for the agency for five days starting June 13 and faced questioning for over 50 hours over a span of five days, said the party insiders.

The show of strength on Thursday is to express solidarity with the party chief and oppose what the Congress believes as BJP’s political vendetta.” “This is a bogus case. The charges are baseless and false. The ED questioning is just an attempt to browbeat the Congress leadership,” Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha told ETV Bharat.

Party insiders said AICC general secretary in charge of Organization KC Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been discussing strategy over summons for Sonia Gandhi with the senior leaders over the past few days. As a result, all the senior leaders including AICC general secretaries, in charge of states, AICC secretaries and members of the Congress Working Committee, besides the heads of the frontal organizations like the Youth Congress, NSUI and Mahila Congress, would converge at the party headquarters on Thursday morning to express solidarity with the party chief and stage a peaceful protest.

While there will be a big show of strength in Delhi, the state units have accordingly been advised to organize similar protests outside local ED offices to flag the false and baseless charges against the Gandhi’s in the National Herald case.

As the monsoon session is on, all the Members of Parliament are already in Delhi. But as the Congress is leading opposition protests over price rise and GST, both inside and outside the Parliament House every day, the lawmakers may be asked to continue the protests inside the Parliament House complex, said party strategists.

“The party leaders and office bearers can be there at the headquarters to express solidarity with Soniaji,” said a senior AICC functionary. Party leaders said they had staged peaceful protests earlier when Rahul had been summoned by the agency but had to face unreasonable restrictions from the police, which manhandled several senior leaders, including women MPs.

When Rahul was being questioned by the ED, Sonia Gandhi was recovering in a hospital from Covid-related ailments. Upon her return, she had requested for a fresh date of appearance, which was fixed by the agency as July 21.

“We have seen that such questioning is just for the sake of it. Our leader was asked to answer similar questions for all five days,” said another AICC functionary. “She is our leader. We all will protest her questioning. Though we respect the process of law, we feel it is part of political vendetta,” he said. (With Agency Inputs)