Karnataka income-tax raids: Sonia Gandhi gives go-ahead to multi-protest plan

NEW DELHI: Congress will surely raise the issue of "BJP making use of central agencies to silence the opposition" at various fora, senior Congress leaders told ET on Tuesday.

This comes in response to the income-tax department conducting searches at 39 locations related to Karnataka energy minister DK Shivakumar. A senior party leader said Congress president Sonia Gandhi had called one of her close associates on Wednesday morning and asked him to ensure the matter was raised at various fora — courts, Parliament and streets. "She was clear that this vindicates the party’s position now and that we must go all out against BJP’s brazen use of power," the leader added.

He said the Congress leadership felt the incident brought out the "truth about BJP panicking about its win in the RS polls in Gujarat". "The leadership feels even if the party wins, the grace has gone out of the victory. We will strategise soon on how to raise the issue of agencies being used by BJP to silence us," he added.