Rahul Gandhi, family partially owned Kingfisher Airlines through proxy: BJP
New Delhi, Sep 13 : The BJP on Thursday alleged that the UPA government gave "sweet deals" to fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, while claiming that Congress President Rahul Gandhi's family "partially owned the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines through proxy".
"There are documents that show how the RBI and UPA under Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh had given sweet deals to Kingfisher Airlines," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sambit Patra told the media.
"And it appears through these chain of documents that Kingfisher Airlines was owned not by Mallya but by the Gandhi family through proxy," he alleged showing the letters written by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the State Bank of India (SBI) requesting for the restructuring of the loans of Kingfisher Airline
The accuracy of the documents could not be ascertained. There was no immediate response from Rahul Gandhi's office.
The BJP leader's remarks came a day after Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while referring to the statement of Mallya alleging that he met the BJP leader before leaving the country.
Patra also alleged that the party has enough evidence which shows that Rahul Gandhi was "using black money" and the Gandhi family was helping Mallya with sweet deals.
He said that Rahul Gandhi travelled free in Kingfisher Airlines, which was once owned by Mallya.
"Rahul Gandhi took one crore loan from a shell company, we have the confession of the company director Umashankar Gupta," Patra said. The BJP leader also demanded that the Congress President "clear the air over his family's relations" with Mallya.
Mallya, who left India on March 2, 2016, and is facing charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore and fighting an extradition case, had told reporters in London that he met the finance minister before leaving India and offered to settle with the banks.
However, Jaitley rejected Mallya's claim as factually false.
"My attention has been drawn to a statement made to the media by Vijay Mallya on having met me with an offer of settlement. The statement is factually false in as much as it does not reflect truth," Jaitley had said in a Facebook post.
Earlier in the day, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters that all the allegations against Jaitley were "false".
"All these allegations are false. I want to question one thing, all these remarks are being made after Rahul Gandhi's London visit," Prasad said.
"Is there anything common between them (Mallya and Rahul Gandhi)?" the Law Minister asked. He also said that since 1947 till 2008 the banks in the country gave loans to the tune of Rs 18 lakh crore.
"And from 2008 to 2014 it increased to 52 lakh crore. So when Mallya got the maximum loan under which government you all know," Prasad added.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Davanagere South bypoll: Cong Muslim leaders allege internal conspiracy to defeat party candidate
Bengaluru (PTI): A rift within the Karnataka Congress surfaced on Friday, a day after the bypolls to two Assembly constituencies in the state, as a group of Muslim leaders alleged a "conspiracy" by some of their own senior party leaders to defeat the official candidate in Davanagere South.
However, they asserted that despite efforts by some within to project that Congress "betrayed" Muslims, the party candidate Samarth Mallikarjun will win in Davanagere South, the constituency where the community has a significant presence.
Chief Whip in the Legislative Council Saleem Ahmed, MLAs Rizwan Arshad, Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, MLC Bilkis Bano, and other Congress leaders addressed a joint press conference regarding this at the party office here.
"It is a sad thing that some senior leaders of our own party have conspired to defeat the Congress, despite this minorities have voted for the Congress. KPCC President (D K Shivakumar), the Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) and the AICC General Secretary (Randeep Singh Surjewala) are aware of this. People have voted for Congress, its ideology and its five guarantee schemes," Ahmed said.
Noting that Samath Mallikarjun was given a ticket after taking all minority leaders of the party into confidence and following their consent, he said, "But after that because of some misconceptions, conspiracies have been hatched. But still, I'm confident that Congress candidate Samarth will win".
According to party sources, these Muslim leaders have also complained to AICC and state party leadership regarding attempts for "internal sabotage" in Davanagere South.
Though the leaders did not indicate who they were accusing. Several party sources said their attack was directed at Housing Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, among a few others.
Khan, who had openly demanded the Davanagere South ticket for a Muslim candidate, had initially stayed away from campaigning in the segment, citing his Kerala poll responsibilities. However, he addressed a press meet along with Samarth's father and Minister SS Mallikarjun at the request of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
MLA Arshad said that there was a massive social media campaign against the Congress party, by the BJP, SDPI and Independents, alleging "betrayal" of the minorities by the Congress. Some within the party, too, tried to project the same.
"We indeed demanded a ticket for the minority, and the party considered it. However, since we, as minority leaders, had to provide a unanimous candidate, we only put forward Abdul Jabbar's name because he is the MLC from the region, and he also pressured us. I think we first failed there, as ground-level party workers did not accept it and some other leaders believed he wasn't that popular," he said.
Arshad noted that the party finally named Samarth Mallikarjun as the candidate "after considering all factors and taking all Muslim leaders into confidence".
"However, some of us Muslim leaders who worked for the party's official candidate were projected as anti-Muslim on social media," he claimed.
Some leaders who accepted the party's decision to nominate Samarth as the party candidate during the meeting called to decide it later showed indirect signs of resistance, he said. "An attempt was made by others, including some within the Congress, to project that the Congress has betrayed the Muslims. This has caused us pain."
Bypolls for Davanagere South were held along with Bagalkot on Thursday. The election was necessitated following the death of sitting MLAs Shamanur Shivashankarappa and H Y Meti respectively.
Muslim disgruntlement appears to be a concern for the Congress in Davanagere South. With 14 of the 25 candidates in the fray belonging to the community, there are apprehensions within the party about a split in votes, which could benefit the BJP.
Given its significant presence in the constituency, the Muslim community strongly demanded the Congress ticket for Davanagere South. Some party factions had opposed giving the ticket to the Shamanur family.
Although the Congress was successful in persuading rebel candidate Sadiq Pailwan to withdraw from the contest, he remained in the fray as the move came after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations.
