'Systemic Effort Underway By Prime Minister Modi To Cripple Congress Financially': Sonia Gandhi

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Thursday (21 March) hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is  making “a systematic effort to cripple Congress financially”.

Addressing a press conference, senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge said that the issue of freezing of Congress’ bank accounts is extremely serious, and affects not just their party but the country's democracy.

"The issue we are taking up today is extremely serious. This issue affects not just the Indian National Congress, but our democracy itself, most fundamentally.  A systematic effort is underway by the Prime Minister to cripple the Indian National Congress financially. Funds collected from the public are being frozen and money from our accounts is being taken away forcibly," Sonia Gandhi said, NDTV reported.

The ex-Congress president's statement was a reference to the party's claim last month that the Income Tax Department had frozen Rs 115 crore in its bank accounts following a tax demand of Rs 210 crore as dues and penalty for the financial year 2018-19.

Later, Congress leader Ajay Maken alleged that Rs 65 crore had been withdrawn by the I-T department from three of the party's accounts even though a petition against the claim was being heard by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT)

The ITAT had earlier this month refused to accept the party's petition to stop the department's action against its bank accounts. 

"However, even under these most challenging circumstances, we are doing our very best to maintain the effectiveness of our election campaign. On the one hand there is the electoral bond issue, which has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The electoral bonds have benefited, as everyone knows, the BJP hugely, massively," Gandhi said.

"On the other hand, the finances of the principal opposition party, are under a determined assault. This, we all believe is unprecedented and undemocratic," she added. 

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