PRIGA JOINS VADRA IN RAJ

Vadra has been summoned by ED in Rajasthan

Robert Vadra with his mother arrives to appear before the ED officials in Jaipur.

Feb. 11: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrived on a chartered plane on Monday evening to meet her husband Robert Vadra, who is scheduled to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a probe into an alleged land scam in Rajasthan’s border town of Bikaner.

According to airport authorities, Priyanka left the airport under tight security for the hotel where her husband had reached earlier in the day.

Priyanka had on last Wednesday strongly come out in support of her husband, whom she had dropped off at the Enforcement Directorate’s office in Delhi on the first day of his questioning in another case.

“He is my husband, he is my family... I support my family,” she had said when asked whether she was sending a message by dropping off her husband.

Mr Vadra is scheduled to make a fresh appearance before the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday in Jaipur in connection with a probe into an alleged land scam in Bikaner.

Mr Vadra’s mother Maureen is also likely to appear before the central probe agency at about 10 am at its zonal office on Bhawani Singh Road in Jaipur.

The duo landed at Jaipur airport on Monday noon. This will be the fourth time that Vadra appears before the agency.

On the last three occasions, he appeared before the ED in Delhi in connection with a moneylaundering probe against him for his alleged role in procuring assets abroad in an alleged illegal manner.

Tuesday's appearance before the ED in Jaipur is directed by the Rajasthan high court which asked Mr Vadra and his mother

to cooperate with the agency after they approached it seeking directions that no coercive action is taken against them by the agency.

Sources said the investigating officer (IO) of the case would record the statement of Mr Vadra and his mother under the Prevention of Money Laundering

Act (PMLA).

The investigating agency has grilled Mr Vadra for about 24 hours over three sessions last week in the national capital.

Rahul Gandhi is the party president while Priyanka Vadra is among the many national general secretaries, but her entry will have an impact in the long run Nobody has a magic wand. I do not think she will be able to turn things around for the Congress in the two-three months that are left for the Lok Sabha polls. But she is a big name and a popular face. In the long run, yes she would emerge as a challenge (to the NDA)— Prashant Kishor, Poll strategist