The BJP on Monday accused the Congress of hitting the streets in support of corruption, alleging its actions were meant to protect the Gandhi family’s Rs 2,000 crore worth of “ill-gotten” assets.

The BJP fielded Union minister Smriti Irani to attack the Gandhis on a day the Congress protested across the country against the Enforcement Directorate’s questioning of Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.

Irani accused the Gandhis of having grabbed assets worth Rs 2,000 crore from Associated Journals Limited, which publishes the National Herald newspaper, by floating a company named Young Indian.

She said the protests by Congress leaders and workers were meant to pressure the ED. “Never before was such a blatant attempt made by a political family to hold a probe agency to ransom,” she said.

“The Congress leaders hit the streets to protect the ill-gotten assets of the Gandhi family.”

Justifying the ED case, Irani said 5,000 freedom fighters had shares in the National Herald newspaper when it was started (in 1937) but now the Gandhi family owned it.

She said that Associated Journals’ shares had been transferred to Young Indian.

“Officially, Young Indian was formed in 2010 for charity purposes. In 2016, the company admitted that it had not undertaken any charitable work,” Irani said. “The company served the Gandhi family, not society.”

The Congress has denied any wrongdoing and alleged a political vendetta.

The ED summonses to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul have come just ahead of the President’s election, scheduled for July 18 if no consensus candidate emerges.

Sonia has been trying to bring all the Opposition parties on one platform to put up a joint candidate for President.

The BJP wants to thwart any Opposition unity. It has set its sights on regional parties like the Biju Janata Dal (Odisha), YSR Congress (Andhra Pradesh) and Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which lack a good equation with the Congress.