Mumbai Congress warns of 'jail bharo' over National Herald issue

MUMBAI: Mumbai Congress today said it would launch a 'jail bharo' agitation if the Centre continues its "political vendetta" against the party and its leaders in the National Herald case.

Speaking to Congress workers after leading a protest march from Metro cinema to Azad Maidan in South Mumbai on the issue, party's city unit chief Sanjay Nirupam accused the Centre of "spreading falsehood" in the case.

"The Election Commission of India did not find merit in the case filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. Even the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had found no wrongdoing and closed the case in August this year. But, the Centre sacked the ED director, who recommended closure and reopened the case a month later," Nirupam said.

He said that if Swamy had filed the case in his individual capacity and not on behalf of the party, how is it that BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain held a press conference at the party's headquarters minutes after the court ruling, he asked.

"Congress has highest respect for the law, but will not take vendetta politics lying low. All Congress workers are ready to go to jail in protest against such tactics of the central government," he charged.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Ashok Chavan and several other party leaders from Mumbai took part in the protest march.

In a big jolt to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, the Delhi High Court recently rejected their pleas for quashing the summons against them in the National Herald case and also turned down their plea for exemption from personal appearance in the case in the trial court.