WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016 (PAGE 18) DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU BJP plans to target Sonia on chopper deal NEW DELHI, Apr 26: Thakur in the while attack Congress on the chopper to name the party leaders in the upper house it may be deal. He asked the defence allegedly involved in the scan- BJP plans to target Sonia raised by Bhupender Yadav. minister in the Manmohan dal.(PTI) Gandhi and other Congress Similarly, the Ishrat Jahan leaders on the issue of bribes in case pot will be stirred by Kirit the AugustaWestland chopper Somayya in the Lok Sabha. deal during the UPA regime in To specific questions a bid to corner the main oppo- whether Sonia Gandhi’s name sition party which has been would be taken up in connec- paralysing on the tion with the chopper scam, a Uttarakhand affair. top leader refused to give a The top brass of the BJP direct reply but party leaders including its President Amit indicated she would be target- Shah and parliamentary leaders ed. including Finance Minister For the record, Telecom met here to chalk Minister out a strategy following media reports that an Italian court, which has convicted AugustaWestland chief Giuseppe Orsi, has reportedly described how the firm paid bribes to top Congress leaders to bag the Rs.3,600 crore deal. The issue also figured in the BJP Parliamentary Party where Prime Minister was also present. Congress would also be targeted on the controversial Aircel Maxis deal and the affidavits in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. According to media reports, was fielded by the BJP to Singh Government A K Antony the Italian court judgement states how the firm lobbied with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her close aides besides the then NSA M K Narayanan and the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Gandhi was described as the “driving force” by the judge behind the deal. Subramanian Swamy, who took oath as the newly-nomi- nated member of Rajya Sabha today and the bete noire of Congress’ first family, will rake up the chopper deal issue in the Rajya Sabha for which notice has been given. Meenakshi Lekhi is expected to do the job in the Lok Sabha tomorrow. A top BJP leader said it is significant that for the first time the bribe giver has been convicted but still people do not know who the bribe-taker is. The Aircel Maxis issue is likely to be raked up by Anurag