New Delhi: A day after Election Commission (EC) gave a jolt to the party, Congress today (Nov 19) said Sonia Gandhi did use a Chattisgarh Government helicopter to travel from Chennai to Sriperumbudur on October 10 to receive President A P J Abdul Kalam there.

Party sources said Gandhi, who is also the leader of the Opposition, flew the short distance to be in time at Sriperumbudur to receive the President ahead of official function at which he dedicated to the nation a memorial for Rajiv Gandhi.

Besides, there were no speeches at the function, which was a solemn occasion, the sources said.

They insisted that the Congress president travelled from only Chennai to Sriperumbudur and not from Raipur in Chattisgarh to various other places including Hyderabad and Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh and to Chennai as has been stated in the show cause notice of the Election Commission.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Oscar Fernandes has been entrusted with the task to give the party's response in the matter to the poll panel and he was consulting legal experts, they said.

Today's revelation by the party sources was at variance with yesterday's reaction by the Congress, which hours after the Election Commission charged Gandhi with violating the model code of conduct, had asserted that she had "definitely not used" any of the Chattisgarh Government aircraft ever since the model code of conduct for the coming Assembly elections came into force.

Meanwhile, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said at the daily briefing that the party would respond to the notice in a day or two.

PTI