London: Former IPL chief Lalit Modi kicked off another controversy when he said that he had met Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi and her son-in-law Robert Vadra in London last year.
Modi took to microblogging website Twitter on Thursday night and said that he was happy to meet the Gandhi family in London. “I had run into Robert and Priyanka separately in a resturant - they were with Timmy Sarna. He has my no. They can call me. Will tell them what I feel about them exactly. Will mince no words. Will make no deal. But tell them witch hunt will now make them realize I was. If I remember correctly it was last year and the year before. Doubt either reported it to anyone. They were in power then (sic)," his series of tweets added.
Notably, Timmy Sarna, who was mentioned in the above tweet, is the managing director of DLF Brands.
The disclosure will turn the tables on the Congress, which has been trying to pressurise the BJP to sack External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for helping Modi with travel documents and immigration in the UK.
The Bharatiya Janata Party asked Sonia Gandhi to explain the meeting claimed by Modi since her Congress party is demanding with resignation of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over her links with Modi.
"The Congress must explain. Why Mrs Gandhi is silent?" asked BJP's Sambit Patra.
Responding to Modi's claims, Congress's media chief Randeep Surjewala said that neither Priyanka nor her husband ever interacted socially with the former IPL boss and running into anybody in a restaurant was not a crime.
He said Lalit Modi was working at the behest of BJP to divert attention to "non-issues" and reiterated the main Opposition's demand for resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for their help to him.
In a sharp attack on the BJP, he said it should tell its "black money stooges to not rely on red-herrings" and the government answer to people about accusations levelled at Swaraj and Raje.
Lalit Modi's tweets came on a day when it was reported that Raje has conveyed to BJP leaders that she had testified on Modi's immigration application document. The BJP leadership has decided to back the Chief Minister for now. The Congress has, however, taken an aggressive stand against Raje and threatened to launch an agitation if she did not resign.
