Priyanka is qualified, deserves to be in Parliament: Robert Vadra

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra on Saturday said his wife Priyanka Gandhi has all the qualifications to be in Parliament and she should be there. He expressed hope the Congress party would plan for her Lok Sabha entry.

"I feel she (Priyanka Gandhi) should be in Parliament. 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," he told PTI.

Vadra also hit out at Union minister Smriti Irani for linking his name with business tycoon Gautam Adani while speaking in Parliament. During a debate on the no-confidence motion in Parliament, Irani had displayed a picture of Vadra with Adani.

Vadra said he keeps away from politics and discusses it only when the ruling party brings up his name. "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.

"I will speak to fight for my name because if there is anything they say they have to prove it. I challenge them that if they are going to take my name and 'you are going to bring my photograph, please show me something that I have done with Mr Adani and if there is any wrongdoing I will deal with it and if not, they have to apologise and will have to take it back'," he said. Vadra said champion women wrestlers were protesting in Delhi for their rights, but Irani as the union minister for women and child welfare never went to meet them and hear out their grievances.

"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 anything 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 said.

On the opposition alliance, he said, the Congress has joined the 'INDIA' bloc and it will give them (NDA) a good fight in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.