Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday slammed the government and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of deliberately using ways to cripple the main opposition party of the country financially.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Gandhi said, "A systematic effort is underway by the Prime Minister to cripple the Indian National Congress financially."
She said, "The finances of the principal opposition party, the INC, are under a determined assault."
The CPP chairperson claimed that the ruling party was forcibly taking away the money from the party's account that was collected from the public.
She said that the issue the party was taking up "is very serious and affects not just the Indian National Congress; it impacts our democracy itself most fundamentally".
She further stressed, "Even under these most challenging circumstances, we are doing our best to maintain the effectiveness of our election campaign.'
Speaking on the issue, Rahul Gandhi said, "With all the bank accounts of our party frozen, in such a situation we cannot campaign, we cannot pay our workers, we cannot leave aside flights, we can't even take a train."
He further said, "Being the main opposition, 20 percent of the country votes for us, and we are not able to pay even Rs 2. Even if our accounts are unfrozen today, it will be difficult as huge damage has already been done to the democracy of India."
The party vowed to knock on all the doors to save democracy and also go to the people of the country and urge them to help their candidates.
Electoral bonds only benefitted ruling party: Congress
Top leaders of the Congress party accused the BJP of looting the donation given by the common public by freezing its accounts and forcibly withdrawing the money.
They also alleged that the ruling party has immensely benefitted from the electoral bonds, which were termed as illegal and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of India.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was also addressed by CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former party president Rahul Gandhi, general secretary Jairam Ramesh, and treasurer Ajay Maken, termed the freezing of bank accounts of the country's main opposition as an "attack on democracy".
Stressing that there should be an 'equal level playing field for all political parties', Kharge said, "The elections for the 18th Lok Sabha will not be held again, therefore, to maintain a level playing field, it is imperative that the agency defreeze our accounts immediately.'
He alleged that more than Rs Six thousand crore have been deposited into the account of the BJP.
"Our accounts have been frozen so that we are not able to contest the elections equally due to a lack of funds, and this is a dangerous game being played by the ruling party. This will have far reaching effects," Kharge claimed.
"It is clear that creating obstacles to contesting elections by rendering any political party helpless in this manner can never be called a free and fair election," Kharge said.