Mumbai, Jul 21 (IANS): The Maharashtra Congress and its outfits in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and other places staged vociferous protests on Thursday over the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoning Congress President Sonia Gandhi for questioning.

The agitation was led by state President Nana Patole, Mumbai chief Bhai Jagtap, with the participation of several top leaders including former ministers like Varsha Gaikwad, Aslam Shaikh, Ashok Chavan, and party working president Charan Singh Sapra among others.

This morning they started out in a huge procession from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to the ED office in south Mumbai.

Carrying banners and posters, they raised slogans slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party government and the ED for "misusing central investigating agencies" to target the Opposition party leaders all over India.

Patole, Jagtap, Gaikwad, speaking on the occasion condemned the BJP government for pursuing 'vendetta politics' against the Congress leaders and also other Opposition leaders across the country.

"They are diverting public attention from major issues like the GST imposition on essential food items, the skyhigh inflation and massive unemployment, by targeting the Opposition like this," said Patole.

Jagtap and Gaikwad pointed out how the BJP is raking up old cases and issues to discredit the Congress leaders and reopened the National Herald case though it was closed earlier.

However, the Congress will not be cowed down by such harassment tactics and will continue to expose the misdoings of the BJP government at all levels.

As the procession marched ahead, a short distance away from the ED headquarters, it was stopped by the police with all the leaders detained and bundled into waiting vans and taken to the MRA Marg Police Station.

Similar protests were carried out by local Congress leaders and activists in Pune and Nagpur cities, said a state party spokesperson.