Robert Vadra land deal: Electoral Commissioner summons Narendra Modi's speech CD

CHANDIGARH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused Haryana’s Bhupinder Singh Hooda government of clearing a contentious land deal between Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-inlaw Robert Vadra and real-estate giant DLF after the model code of conduct for elections came into force.

After Modi made the allegations at election rallies at Hisar and Faridabad, Haryana’s chief electoral officer summoned a recording of his speech to examine the comments. Chief Minister Hooda dubbed the comments as “false propaganda” by the PM and said he would quit politics if it is proven that the land involved was owned by the government.

Modi questioned the “haste” shown by the Haryana government in clearing the deal, and “hoped” that the Election Commission would take note of it.

“We will scrutinise the comments of the PM regarding the purported clearance given by the state government and then take a decision,” Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Walgad told ET. “We are not concerned with something if it has happened before the model code of conduct was invoked.”

A senior government official, requesting anonymity, said there was no violation of the code as the decision was made in July, two months before to code of conduct came into force.