Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was given a rousing welcome by thousands of people, including United Democratic Front leaders and workers, at Kalpetta in Wayanad on Wednesday as she prepares to make her electoral debut by filing nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha bypoll.
Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi are likely to contest the Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli and Amethi seats, respectively, sources said on Thursday.
Vadra and his mother Maureen had appeared before the ED on Tuesday.
A senior Indian Administrative Service officer from Haryana is at the centre of a raging controversy after he was transferred in the wake of his decision to probe the alleged undervaluation of properties dealt with by Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi
On December 7 last year, the agency had carried out raids at Vadra's offices at Delhi.
The government has no plans to withdraw exemption given to Priyanka Gandhi and her husband Robert Vadra from normal security checks at airports when they travel together.
The controversy over land deals involving Robert Vadra has taken a new turn with senior Haryana Indian Administrative Service officer Ashok Khemka cancelling the sale of over three acre land to realty major DLF after he was shunted out from his post.
'All these years of experience and learning cannot be just wasted and should be put to better use...Once all these accusations and allegations are over, I feel I should dedicate a larger role in serving the people'
The Centre was asked by the Allahabad high court on Thursday to respond within three weeks on a petition seeking a probe into allegations levelled by activist Arvind Kejriwal against Robert Vadra.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday attacked Robert Vadra saying his "inappropriate" behaviour towards a journalist was a result of frustration and he must realise that the country is no longer ruled by the Gandhi family, even as the Congress downplayed the incident.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday hit out at the Prime Minister's Office for giving a clean chit to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra in the land deals with realty major DLF in Haryana and sought to know how it arrived at this conclusion without conducting any probe. "Is it the Prime Minister's Office or a bailout office? We say this with full responsibility," BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Prior to filing his nomination, Rahul Gandhi held a road show during which he was accompanied by Priyanka Gandhi and her husband Robert Vadra alongwith their children Raihan and Miraya.
With an opposition party so compromised and so complicit in the rampant loot and corruption that we have witnessed in recent years, isn't Roberrt Vadra quite on the mark when he calls India a 'banana republic', asks Sushant Sareen
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a scathing attack on the BJP in her maiden Lok Sabha speech, accusing the government of trying to weaken the Constitution and prioritizing the interests of one individual over the people. She criticized the BJP's alleged attempts to change the Constitution, the growing monopoly of the Adani Group, atrocities on women, and the demand for a nationwide caste census. She also challenged the BJP to hold elections using ballot paper, saying it would expose the reality.
Khattar noted that the court has not given permission to make the report of the commission public.
What stops you from writing a cheque for Rs 7.94 crore, if you are sure the payee won't present it for payment? Nothing, really, not even the fact that your bank account has a balance of Rs 1 lakh or less. It is this confidence that seemed to have helped the Robert Vadra-promoted Sky Light Hospitality to write one or more cheques amounting to Rs 7.94 crore and account that as "book overdraft" in its balance sheet for the year ended March 31, 2008.
After the entry of Satyanand Yajee and Sandeep Dahiya, Onkareshwar Properties got over Rs 85 cr as short-term loans in two years, reports N Sundaresha Subramanian
This is the second time Sonia Gandhi joined the yatra that began in September from Kanyakumari.
Vadra is expected to be questioned again on either Friday or Saturday.
The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister.
'Has the BJP not announced its candidates in Raebareli?'
Vadra's emotive Facebook post came as Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia, who took charge as AICC general secretary UP east and UP west, respectively, last week, participated in a road show in Lucknow on Monday along with Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Are they missing or have they been intentionally removed? A huge uproar has broken out after whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka has revealed that two important pages of a file pertaining to DLF-Robert Vadra land deal, containing notings, are missing.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala claimed officials of Skylight Hospitality have visited ED numerous times and supplied them whatever documents required but they have not been able to find anything either against Vadra or his company or associates.
But the Robert Vadra firm, which held luxury apartments in top DLF projects, sees income and profits dry up since FY11.
She dared the government to order an impartial probe if there is something in which she said the truth will come out.
I wish they will spare her and not let her life's dedicated efforts be judged," said Vadra.
Terming demonetisation as an 'unplanned and unthought process', Vadra wrote, "The government seems to have reached its levels of desperation to overcome the initial blunder it created."
On speculations of Priyanka Gandhi contesting in the 2024 election, Rai said that Priyanka Gandhi will contest from wherever she wants to.
They added that Vadra was expected to join the probe again on Friday.
Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat had alleged that the UPA called off Rafale deal after a private company linked to Vadra was not chosen as a broker.
Unfazed by Bharatiya Janata Party's aggressive stance on Robert Vadra land deals controversy, Congress on Tuesday ruled out discussion on the issue in Parliament and dared Yashwant Sinha to move court after he sought a probe by Special Investigation Team into the matter.
However, the posters were reportedly put without sanction by a Congress worker and Gandhi loyalist.
Amid the Bharatiya Janata Party governments at the Centre and in Haryana beginning to turn the heat on him, businessman Robert Vadra, also the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, recently ensured his companies filed their pending balance sheets.
Khemka had been chargesheeted by the previous Hooda government, which had accused him of exceeding his jurisdiction by cancelling the mutation of the land deal over three years back between Skylight Hospitality, owned by Vadra, and DLF.
Insisting that all laws were followed in a "completely transparent manner", Vadra said, "Neither me nor anyone associated with me has anything to hide."
The businessman has been grilled in this case four times in the past, the last being February 20.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Saturday she looks forward to being the voice of the people of Wayanad in Parliament and thanked Rahul Gandhi for 'showing her the way and having her back always'.
A statement from Gandhi's office came after a media house purportedly made a query to Robert Vadra asking whether a portion of the money he had received from the DLF was used by his wife to buy properties in Faridabad in Haryana.
If Priyanka wins the Lok Sabha bypolls, it would be for the first time that three members of the Gandhi family will be in Parliament. Her mother Sonia Gandhi is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan.
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