New Delhi, Nov 17: A day after Election Commission
gave a jolt to the party, Congress today said Sonia Gandhi did
use a Chhattisgarh government helicopter to travel from
Chennai to Sriperumbudur on October 10 to receive President A P J
Abdul Kalam there.
Party sources said Gandhi, who is also the leader of the
opposition, flew the short distance to be in time at
Sriperumbudur to receive the president ahead of official
function at which he dedicated to the nation a memorial for
Rajiv Gandhi.
Besides, there were no speeches at the function which
was a solemn occasion, the sources said.
They insisted that the Congress president travelled from
only Chennai to Sriperumbudur and not from Raipur in
Chattisgarh to various other places including Hyderabad and
Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh and to Chennai as has been stated
in the show cause notice of the Election Commission.
AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes has been
entrusted with the task to give the party's response in the
matter to the poll panel and he was consulting legal experts,
they said.
Today's revelation by the party sources was at variance
with yesterday's reaction by the Congress, which hours after
the election commission charged Gandhi with violating the
model code of conduct, had asserted that she had "definitely
not used" any of the Chattisgarh government aircraft ever
since the model code of conduct for the coming assembly
elections came into force.
Meanwhile, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said at the
daily briefing that the party would respond to the notice in a
day or two.
Bureau Report
