Congress hails EC's decision in Sonia Gandhi's disqualification issue

New Delhi, Apr 19 (ANI): Congress party on Sunday welcomed the Election Commission's (EC) decision to reject the demand for disqualification of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi as a Member of Parliament for receiving a foreign award.

"We welcome the EC's decision. The EC decided to clear Sonia itself. We were not approached by the EC," Kapil Sibal said.

Earlier in the day, the EC rejected a demand for the disqualification of Sonia Gandhi as an MP for receiving a foreign award.

Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and S. Y. Quraishi have overturned incumbent Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami's view that an enquiry is necessary to go into the complaint against Gandhi.

Sonia Gandhi had received Belgium's second highest civilian honour 'Order of Leopold' in November 2006.

The EC's view has been sent to President Pratibha Patil for a final decision.

The controversy arose after a Kerala advocate had sought Gandhi's disqualification for accepting the Belgian honour. (ANI)