Sonia deputes 5-member team to visit riot-affected areas, asks it submit detailed report

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday deputed a five-member team to visit the riot-affected areas in northeast Delhi and submit a report to her after assessing the situation there.

The delegation comprises All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Mukul Wasnik, AICC in-charge Delhi Shaktisinh Gohil, Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja, former MP Tariq Anwar and Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev.

The Congress president has deputed a delegation of party leaders to visit the riot-affected areas in the national capital and asked them to assess the situation emanating from the mindless violence and its after effects, the party said in a statement.

The team has been asked to submit a "detailed report to the Congress president immediately", it said.

Later, the Congress leaders who are part of the team held a meeting at the party headquarters here.

Accusing Home Minister Amit Shah of "abdication of duty" during the communal violence in Delhi, a Congress delegation led by Sonia Gandhi on Thursday urged President Ram Nath Kovind to call for his resignation and remind the Centre of its "raj dharma".

Reading out parts of the memorandum that the party submitted to the president, Gandhi had said both the Delhi government and the Centre remained "mute spectators" instead of trying to take remedial measures to control the situation.

The delegation included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, P Chidambaram, K C Venugopal, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Anand Sharma, A K Antony, Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala.

The death toll in the Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42 now with four more fatalities being recorded on Friday, officials said.