Rahul Gandhi says govt misusing Central agencies’ power

New Delhi: Before his dramatic appearance at the Congress press conference late evening Wednesday, former Union minister P Chidambaram got the full backing of his party even as the grand-old party decided to approach other Opposit-ion parties for support on the issue of the “witch-hunt” against the senior Rajya Sabha MP.

At a strategy meeting held at party treasurer Ahmed Patel’s house at 5 pm, the Congress also decided to make a spectacle of Mr Chidambaram’s arrest by asking Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee workers to march to home minister Amit Shah’s residence as a mark of protest.

The DPCC workers were later seen at the Jor Bagh residence of Mr Chidamabram shouting slogans in his support.

Sources said that Congress workers had been asked to assemble at AICC headquarters and outside Mr Chidambar-am’s residence the moment Supreme Court refused to hear the case on Wednesday.

The strategy was further discussed at the evening meeting which was attended by apart from Mr Patel, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and the legal team Kapil Sibal, Vivek Tankha and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

A senior leader told this newspaper that the party has decided to speak with other Opposition parties at a protest meet against the detention of political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday as well.

The protest meet would be the first after the disastrous performance of the Opposition parties at the hustings in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress, the leader said, was keen to turn this into an event of nationwide solidarity with the former finance minister.

However, on Wednesday no party except Tamil Nadu ally DMK had come out in support of the beleagured ex-Union minister. Accusing the BJP-led central government of pursuing political vendetta, DMK chief M.K. Stalin said: “As regards this issue, I have clearly learnt that these (actions) are happening due to political vendetta”.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal, which was another pre-poll ally of the Congress only had a cryptic tweet in Hindi which said: “Join the BJP and forget your blemishes”.

At the press confernece late evening, Mr Chidam-baram was flanked by Mr Patel, Mr Venugopal, Mr Sibal, Mr Singhvi, Mr Azad and others. Led by the Gandhis, leader after leader of the Congress Party backed Mr Chidam-baram, mostly on Twitter.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi claimed that the ED, CBI and a particular section of the media was trying to character assasinate the former FM.“Modi’s Govt is using the ED, CBI & sections of a spineless media to character assassinate Mr Chidambaram. I strongly condemn this disgraceful misuse of power,” he tweeted.