BackCongress dismisses Lalit Modi meeting Vadras as ‘coincidence’
Ex-IPL chief tweets he had 'run into' them in London separately; BJP seeks Sonia Gandhi's comment on the matter
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New Delhi: The Congress said on Friday that party president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra had run into former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi in London in a mere “coincidence", seeking to deflect a political attack by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Congress’s comment came after Modi, who faces charges of foreign exchange violations in India, posted on the microblogging site Twitter that he was “Happy to meet the Gandhi family... in London. I had run into Robert and Priyanka separately".
Modi said he had “run into" the two at a restaurant.
“It is a coincidence. What can anybody do if someone appears before someone in a restaurant," C.P. Joshi, senior spokesperson and general secretary of the Congress, told reporters.
Randeep Surjewala, the chief spokesperson of the party, said the fact that Modi saw the Vadra couple at a restaurant was “not an offence".
The Congress has been on the offensive against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government over allegations that external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj helped Modi secure UK travel documents last year to visit Portugal and meet his ailing wife, who had been hospitalized there. Congress has demanded the sacking of Swaraj as well as Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who allegedly helped Modi in an immigration plea to UK authorities in 2011.
The Congress does not want attention to be deflected from that controversy.
“It will not be politically damaging (to the Congress) because there is no allegation of helping or offering help of any kind. But, yes, it will be a problem if it diverts the attention from our current attack on the BJP leaders," a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.
The BJP quickly latched on to Modi’s tweet to attack the Congress and the Gandhi family.
“Today’s big revelation is the fact that Lalit Modi had met the Gandhi family... Let me categorically put today that the issue is about Lalit Modi and the Gandhi family... the BJP demands Sonia Gandhi make a statement why the Gandhi family has been in touch with Lalit Modi all these years," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.
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