Congress leaders to hold pressers across 57 cities to ‘expose BJP's lies' in National Herald case
Congress leaders P Chidambaram will hold a presser in Delhi, while Shashi Tharoor will address reporters in Lakshadweep.
Top brass of the Congress party will hold press conference across 57 cities between April 21 and 24 to "expose the BJP's lies" in the National Herald case, said Pawan Khera on Sunday.
The development comes in the backdrop of the Enforcement Directorate naming former Congress chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in its chargesheet in the alleged money laundering case related to National Herald.
Both the leaders and other Congress members are named in the ED chargesheet, wherein they are accused of laundering ₹988 crore.
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera, meanwhile, described the publication as a "living monument of the freedom struggle".
ALSO READ | ED charges Sonia, Rahul Gandhi in National Herald case
On Saturday, the grand old party's general secretaries and in-charges across various states met in the national capital to map out a strategy to counter the "politically motivated" charges in the case.
The party asserted that its leadership has committed no crime in the case, adding that it would hold press conferences in the nation from Monday to Thursday to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party's "misinformation" tactic.
57 leaders in 57 cities
In a post on X, Khera said, "From Vijayawada to Varanasi and from Kashmir to Thiruvananthapuram, Congress leaders are fanning out across India to expose the BJP's lies and anti-national efforts to kill the living monument of the freedom struggle."
He shared the list of 57 leaders who will hold press conferences in as many cities across the nation.
ALSO READ | Congress dismisses ED’s ₹5,000-crore claim in National Herald case
Congress leader P Chidambaram will hold a press conference in Delhi, while Shashi Tharoor will talk to reporters in Lakshadweep. Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot will hold a presser in Shimla, Gaurav Gogoi in Jorhat, Syed Naseer Hussain in Goa, Prithviraj Chavan in Belgaum, Manish Tiwari in Chandigarh, and Pranav Jha in Dharamshala.
Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel will address reporters in Bhubaneswar, Kumari Selja in Bhopal, Deependra Hooda in Kochi, Kanhaiya Kumar in Jaipur, Amitabh Dubey in Coimbatore, Tariq Anwar in Lucknow, Rajeev Shukla in Saharanpur and Alka Lamba in Varanasi.
Notably, the Congress on Saturday also slammed the ED's chargesheet against its leadership and described it as a "lie-sheet", asserting that it was not a legal rather a political battle.
Additionally, Congress also exuded confidence in winning the battle against the central government on the Waqf (Amendment) Act, alleging that the BJP was deliberately targeting the Supreme Court "which was only telling the ruling party not to frame laws that went against the basic structure of the Constitution".
ALSO READ | BJP’s Anurag Thakur targets Congress over National Herald case, calls paper an ‘ATM’ for party
The grand old party has also announced its plans to hold 'Samvidhan Bachao rallies' at state level from April 25 to 30 and then at district level from May 3 to 10. Finally, a door-to-door campaign will be held to take the party's message to every household across the nation from May 20 to 30.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that a "criminal conspiracy" was carried out by the Congress leaders to "usurp" properties worth ₹2,000 crore of its public company Associated Journals Limited by transferring 99 per cent shares to a company called Young Indian for just ₹50 lakh, where Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are the majority shareholders.
