Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi criticized PM Modi for suspending party financial accounts. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi branded the measure "systematic efforts" to "cripple" the grand old party financially "unprecedented and undemocratic." "A systematic effort is underway by the Prime Minister to cripple the Indian National Congress financially" , stated. "Funds collected from the public are being frozen and money from our accounts is being taken away forcibly" , she said. Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader, called it a "attack on democracy" "We can't book ads or send our officials because we're the biggest opposition party. This is a democracy attack." Sonia said electoral bonds benefited BJP "Electoral bonds benefited the BJP greatly. The main opposition party, INC, is under attack financially. We consider this unprecedented and undemocratic." Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and Ajay Maken heard the comments at a media briefing. Rahul Gandhi told reporters that PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah had committed "freezing of Indian democracy" by freezing their bank accounts. He questioned the Election Commission's silence on the subject. All our bank accounts are frozen. Campaign work, worker support, and candidate support are prohibited. He said this was done two months before the election. "EC has said nothing. Our electoral campaign has been hampered for a month "said. Rahul stressed monetary shortage, "20% of India votes for us yet we can't pay Rs 2 for anything. It was planned to hurt our election chances. Even when our bank accounts are unfrozen, Indian democracy has suffered greatly from debt."Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asked constitutional bodies to defreeze Congress' bank accounts since parties in power should not control them. "I appeal to constitutional bodies that they should allow our party to access bank accounts if they want free, fair polls" , he said. He criticized the BJP, which obtained most cash from electoral bonds, saying, "Party in power amassed funds through electoral bonds while freezing our accounts to create hurdles for us in fighting polls". Political parties are tax-exempt, thus Congress treasurer Ajay Maken asked, "Why is Congress being penalised and that too just before elections?" "Quantum of punishment is such that for.07% discrepancy, 106% penalty imposed on Congress...Rs 115 crore from our bank accounts will be transferred to I-T and govt," he said. He called it "an attack on democracy in India." On March 8, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) denied the Congress' request for a stay against bank account freezing.