NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday led a solidarity march to the residence of former prime minister Manmohan Singh after a court summoned him as an accused in coal mines allocation scam.

Reports said the Congress was likely to challenge in Supreme Court, the summons issued to Dr Singh as an accused by a Special CBI court in a case relating to alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks to Hindalco, a private firm. The party is meanwhile studying the 75-page court order.

This is what emerged after an informal meeting of members of the Congress Working Committee and party MPs at Dr Singh’s residence.

Know more: India's ex-PM Singh summoned as accused in coal field case

The gathering emphasised the need for the party to stand like a rock behind Dr Singh.

Earlier, in an unprecedented gesture, members of the Congress Working Committee and all party MPs, led by party president Sonia Gandhi, marched on Thursday morning from the AICC headquarters to the former prime minister’s residence to express solidarity with him.

Addressing journalists, Ms Gandhi stressed the party’s “unstinted support” for Dr Singh. “We will fight this legally with all the means at our command. I am sure we will be vindicated,” she said.

On Wednesday evening, Ms Gandhi held a preliminary meeting at her residence with Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and former union ministers Kapil Sibal and Ashwini Kumar.

Mr Kumar told The Hindu: “We are studying the order and even on a first reading there appears to be gaping illegal irregularities.

“Despite the CBI saying that there is no prosecutable evidence, such an order has been passed. This itself is a major ground for challenging the order.”

Meanwhile, The Hindu said, the BJP is still not questioning Dr Singh’s integrity, but has far more sharply trained its guns on the Congress.

Union parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told journalists: “We are not questioning Dr Singh’s integrity but the Congress party must take responsibility for what happened.”

Dr Singh thanked the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi for showing solidarity with him and said he was grateful to them.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2015

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