Accusing the Centre of registering false cases against Congress top brass as part of a conspiracy to malign them, the ruling Congress in Uttarakhand today observed a day-long fast and staged a dharna in protest.
Led by PCC president Kishore Upadhyay, Congress workers gathered at Gandhi Park early in the morning braving the chill induced by intermittent rain and snowfall in the hills to take part in the fast-cum-dharna programme in protest against what they termed as the Centre's "politics of vendetta".
In a memorandum submitted to President Pranab Mukherjee through the District Magistrate at the end of the stir, Upadhyay said opposition leaders were being harassed at the behest of the Centre ever since Narendra Modi government took over.
He said false cases were being lodged against top party leaders in a bid to prevent them from raising issues of public interest.
Charging the BJP with having double standards, he said while chief ministers belonging to the party had gone scot free in spite of being convicted by the courts of law, false cases were being lodged against innocent Congress leaders to sully their reputation.
Declaring that Congress workers will not tolerate this, he asked BJP, especially the PM, to apologise to the Congress leaders and withdraw the cases against them.
