Panaji, May 6 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari Thursday accused the Congress of misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to target opposition parties, but did not respond to queries on the witch-hunt against media portal Tehelka.com when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power.

"We will launch a nationwide agitation against the misuse of the CBI by the Congress to blackmail and threaten opposition party leaders... On May 12, the BJP will protest outside the CBI office against this large-scale misuse," Gadkari said here.

While the CBI was being used to leverage pressure on opposition leaders, the federal investigation had also lost its credibility after several Congress leaders like Ajit Jogi, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and others managed to escape criminal punishment, because of CBI-manufactured loopholes, he added.

Gadkari however brushed aside queries from media persons about the harassment meted out to investigative media portal tehelka.com, during the BJP-led NDA's reign in the central government.

"I cannot say anything about that now. But all I can say is there was no misuse of CBI during NDA's term in power," he said, ducking further questions on the issue.

Earlier, Gadkari also said that the CBI was specifically harassing the Gujarat government over the issue of fake shoot-outs at a time, when states like Maharashta, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar topped the list of states which were infamous for fake encounters.

"Gujarat is being punished by the Congress by using the CBI only because it has elected the BJP to power repeatedly," the BJP chief said.

"The CBI has also been used as a tool to pressurise vulnerable opposition leaders, particularly those belonging to BJP, SP (Samajwadi Party) and RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal)," he said.

Gadkari also said that the BJP was perhaps the only opposition party vociferous about the misuse of the CBI, because the others did not have the "courage to fight".