BENGALURU: Congress leaders of Karnataka will lay siege to Raj Bhavan on Thursday protesting against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) action against senior party leader Rahul Gandhi and the Delhi police arresting the party leaders.
Addressing a joint press conference on Wednesday, state Congress president D K Shivakumar and opposition leader Siddaramaiah said the party leaders, including MPs and MLAs, will take out a ‘Raj Bhavan Chalo’ protest rally from the party office at 10 am. Shivakumar said they are protesting against the vindictive politics and the misuse of central agencies. “Rahul Gandhi was questioned for three days when the inquiry could have been completed within two to three hours. This is a conspiracy to silence the Congress leaders,” Shivakumar said.
The Congress workers are not scared of cases and going to jail and they will continue to protest against injustice, he added. Siddaramaiah said the current situation in the country is worse than British rule and they will continue to protest against it till the Centre stops misusing agencies for political vendetta. On Friday, the party will stage protest demonstrations in all districts.
“It is like an undeclared emergency. Never in the history of independent India, not even during the emergency, we have seen such a situation,” he said. “We are ready to go to jail, but you can’t stop us from protesting,” Siddaramaih said. Earlier in the day, Shivakumar appeared before a city court in Bengaluru in a case related to violation of the Covid-19 guidelines during the party’s padayatra demanding that the government start work on the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir project.
Speaking to media persons after coming out of the court, the Congress leader accused the state government of harassing opposition leaders and not taking any action against BJP leaders, including ministers, who violated the Covid-19 guidelines.