Vadra booked, Congress alleges witch-hunt by Modi
New Delhi, Sep 2 : The Congress on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched a "vicious and malicious witch-hunt" by filing cases against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of party chief Rahul Gandhi, for a controversial 2008 land deal in Gurugram.
The Congress said it was being done to divert attention from the corruption saga of Rafale deal, demonetisation, Rs 12 lakh crore loot through hike in fuel prices, failure to create two crore jobs every year, rapidly falling rupee and failing economy and complete failure of the BJP government.
"A new set of manufactured lies is being served through false and fake FIRs against political opponents," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.
"As elections to the four states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram along with the general elections draw near, the fake news factory and dirty tricks department of the Modi government-BJP act maliciously in pursuit of their vicious propaganda."
Denying any wrongdoing, Surjewala said Skylight Hospitality of Vadra purchased land measuring 3.5 acres on January 28, 2008 in the notified commercial zone of Sikohpur in Gurugram through a registered sale-deed for Rs 7.95 crore, including stamp duties.
"In accordance with the prevailing government policy for grant of licence, a commercial licence for 2.5 acres was granted on December 15, 2008.
"After a lapse of nearly five years, this land was sold by Skylight to DLF for Rs 58 crore on September 18, 2012. Even on this amount, Skylight/Vadra paid an additional tax of Rs 8 crore.
"A total amount of Rs 24.11 crore was paid in statutory charges/taxes against the receipt of sale price of Rs 58 crore. Even the licence remains valid till date and has not been cancelled on account of violation of any rule or law or policy for grant of licence. The allegations are false and fabricated on the face of it."
Soorjewala said the malice of Modi-BJP government was apparent from the fact that various governments in Haryana, including the BJP and BJP-Lok Dal governments, had issued licences for 33,697.57 acres of land, including over 11,000 acres in Gurugram alone.
The Manohan Lal Khattar government in Haryana has itself given licences of over a few thousand acres for change of land use to commercial-residential-institutional purposes in the last more than four years, said Surjewala.
"If grant of a licence is wrong, as is being alleged in the FIR, should a similar FIR then be not lodged against Khattar and others for giving commercial and other licences under the same policy?"
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Voting begins for Assam''s 126 assembly seats
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Guwahati (PTI): Polling for all 126 Assam assembly constituencies began on Thursday to decide the electoral fate of 722 candidates, officials said.
In the high-stakes election, the ruling BJP is aiming for a third consecutive term in office, while the Congress seeks to wrest power after being ousted in 2016.
Polling, being held in a single phase, began at 7 am and will conclude at 5 pm. Long queues of voters were seen outside polling stations from early morning.
An electorate of 2.50 crore, including 1.25 crore women and 318 from the third gender, can exercise their franchise in 31,490 polling stations across the state.
Prominent candidates include Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Congress state president Gaurav Gogoi, assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary, Leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal, Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi, and Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) chief Lurinjyoti Gogoi.
Several cabinet ministers, including the AGP’s Atul Bora and Keshav Mahanta, and the BPF’s Charan Boro are also in the fray.
The Congress has the highest of 99 contestants, followed by the BJP (90), AIUDF (30), NDA allies AGP (26) and BPF (11).
Opposition alliance’s Raijor Dal is contesting in 13, AJP in 10, CPI(M) in 3 and APHLC in 2. Outside the two coalitions, the AAP is contesting in 18 seats, UPPL in 18, TMC 22, JMM 16 and there are 258 independents.
The ruling NDA’s main constituents are the BJP, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bodo Peoples’ Front (BPF) while the opposition alliance comprises the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), CPI(M), All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) and CPI(ML).
The counting of votes is scheduled on May 4.
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