Fissures In Congress Leadership? Robert Vadra Pitches 'Qualified' Priyanka For Lok Sabha Days After Rahul Gandhi's Speech

Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, expressed his belief that his wife Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would be "very good" in Parliament and requested that the party make better plans for her.

“She should be in Lok Sabha for sure. She has all the qualifications for it. She would be very good in Parliament and she deserves to be there. I hope that the Congress party accepts and plans better for her,” Vadra was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Vadra's statement comes days after Congress leader Priyanka Vadra's brother Rahul Gandhi was reinstated as a member of Lok Sabha after Supreme Court stayed his conviction and sentence in a criminal defamation case over Modi surname remark.

In his first speech after his return to the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi slammed the government over Manipur violence during the debate on the no confidence motion in Lok Sabha on 9 August.

While speaking to PTI, Vadra also criticised Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani for associating his name with business tycoon Gautam Adani while speaking in the Parliament.

Irani had displayed a photograph of Vadra with Adani during the debate on no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition alliance agains Modi government.

According to Vadra, he keeps away from politics but “I will speak to fight for my name because if there is anything they say they have to prove it”.

He challenged the BJP to provide evidence of any wrongdoing he had done with Adani, stating that if they couldn't, they would have to apologise and retract their statements.

“We have a picture of our very own prime minister sitting in Adani’s plane. Why should not we ask questions about that and what Rahul (Gandhi) has been asking? And why these questions are not answered,” he said.

Vadra also criticised Union Minister Smriti Irani for not meeting with and addressing the grievances of champion women wrestlers who were protesting in Delhi for their rights.

"I did not see Smriti Irani meet them and take up their issues. Manipur has been burning and this minister (Smriti Irani) has to bring up some kind of negative thing about me. I am not even in Parliament,” he said.

“Since this government came to power, they always come up with something against me whenever they are cornered and they want to digress from real issues… but they have never been able to prove anything against me,” he added.

Speaking about the opposition alliance, he said the Congress has joined the I.N.D.I.A. bloc and it will pose a strong challenge to the BJP-led NDA in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“I feel INDIA is a very good title. We are going to make India great again. The BJP government has destroyed India,” he said. “I am very hopeful. And I think and I hope the citizens of the country give this group a chance to make India better again, secular again, progressive again and… united again," he said.