Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have got a tough fight in Varanasi had Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contested against him as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) candidate, feel party workers from the temple town.
He referred to the Modi government scheme providing five kilograms of ration to the poor every month and said, "The Congress brought the Food Security Act, you did nothing."
'We waded through the wet mud into the school, and what we saw were dead bodies strewn all over.' 'We could also see parts of human bodies buried under the wet mud.' 'It was a sight I will never forget in my life. Total devastation everywhere.'
The BJP asked the Gandhis to speak up over the issue.
As the row erupted in Parliament, the Congress said the Gandhi family's caste is martyrdom but the BJP-RSS will never understand that.
The BJP had made the land deals a major poll issue in 2014, alleging that Vadra benefited through questionable land use permissions granted by the earlier Congress government in the state.
Vadra posted the remark on Facebook as the Congress came out in defence of Vadra and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of practising political vendetta.
According to an agreement reached after the telephonic conversation between Priyanka Gandhi and Yadav, the Congress has now got seats such as Sitapur and Barabanki.
The Congress has alleged a Bharatiya Janata Party hand in the land deal controversy in Haryana involving Robert Vadra, alleging that IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who "exposed" the land deal with DLF, is playing into the opposition's hands.
The lawyers also gave detailed responses to specific issues raised in the PAG.
The Congress president's son-in-law decried "intimidation" attempts by BJP and some of its leaders for performing yoga.
Communist Party if India leader A B Bardhan demanded a probe into business dealings between Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and DLF, saying there were contradictions between the financial statements declared by Vadra and the realty major.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Sunday suggested that there was evidence against the kin of former Prime Minster Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani of alleged corruption and wrong-doing but Congress will never use that to embarrass them.
Alleging that Robert Vadra used his 'connections' with the Gandhi family to accumulate wealth and commit other improprieties, Janata Party chief Subramaniam Swami on Tuesday questioned Arvind Kejriwal for restricting his expose to Vadra only and not attacking the Congress president on the issue.
Mihir S Sharma asks a few questions on l'affaire Vadra, and makes notes on who should answer them and why
By pronouncing, without an enquiry, that Vadra is innocent, the Congress ministers can be held to be trying to influence the investigating agencies not to go into the matter because Robert Vadra is a privileged person related to Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and is above the law and any investigation, notes B Raman.
Phogat and Punia joined the party in the presence of Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, spokesperson Pawan Khera and Haryana Congress chief Uday Bhan.
This will be the first time that the Congress, since its ouster from power in 2014, will get the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. It failed to get the position in the past 10 years as its tally was below the requisite 10 per cent of total seats in the House, both in 2014 and 2019.
As Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday raised a storm over Robert Vadra's land deals, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party, UPA's outside supporters, struck a different note wondering how Congress President Sonia Gandhi could be held responsible for the alleged wrongdoings of her son-in-law.
The comments on Twitter came hours after the first political rally on Tuesday of the newly appointed Congress general secretary in which Priyanka told electorates that their votes are a "weapon" which should be used wisely, disregarding useless issues and tall claims made by others.
Vadra, in his Facebook post on July 21, had taken a dig at the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.
Amid intense speculation over whether he would contest the Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he would abide by his party's decision on it.
Sources said Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from Rae Bareli, but a final call is yet to be taken by the first family of the Congress.
In his post, Gandhi urged people to elect the Congress and said, "Rajasthan will choose free treatment. Rajasthan will choose cheaper gas cylinder. Rajasthan will choose interest-free agricultural loan. Rajasthan will choose English education. Rajasthan will choose OPS. Rajasthan will choose caste census."
Vadra launched Skylight Hospitality four months after the DLF shares got listed, amid complaints of inadequate disclosure from investor associations and former business partner Kimsuk Krishna Sinha.
Barely two months before the Lok Sabha election, Gandhi will be filing her nomination papers in Jaipur on Wednesday. Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are likely to accompany her.
The Congress' top leadership will deliberate on the Lok Sabha election results and chalk out its future strategy at a crucial meeting of the party's working committee on Saturday.
The father-in-law of Priyanka Vadra died in New Delhi, his family said on Friday.
'We cannot endanger our national security by indulging in false bravado, fake narratives and high-decibel whitewashing. As a nation, we have to collectively fight the scourge of cross-border terrorism'
The sources said that Priyanka Gandhi remained in constant touch with the party president, the chief minister, ministers and all important leaders, and did not allow any laxity.
"We are going to have a meeting with our partners tomorrow. These questions will be raised and answered there," Gandhi told a press conference in New Delhi when asked if the Congress and its allies will approach parties that are part of the National Democratic Alliance to try and form a government.
While the AAP asked the Congress president's son-in-law to help in the success of the initiative aimed at bringing pollution under check, BJP said it was ironic and raised more questions.
Till now, Vadra, 46, the businessman husband of Priyanka Gandhi, an SPG protectee, was exempted from frisking at airports when he travelled with an SPG protectee.
The Congress top brass on Wednesday rushed former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and DK Shivakumar to Shimla to parley with members of the party which is facing loss of support and risks losing power in the state.
In the event that like in the 17th Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi again gets locked out of the House, the Congress needs a second-in-command who will keep the momentum going inside Parliament, notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Priyanka Gandhi in large part was at the centre of the Congress's action, giving a number of enduring images from this election campaign.
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."
He said Priyanka could have been a wonderful candidate in Varanasi as well, especially looking at how good the Congress candidate did against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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.
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