Vijay Mallya a criminal, cannot be taken seriously: BJP

New Delhi: While putting its weight behind finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday, BJP demanded that Congress president Rahul Gandhi should resign from all posts he held. The party alleged that Gandhi family had “relations” with fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.

“Rahul Gandhi should answer what were the relations between his family and Vijay Mallya,” railways minister Piyush Goyal said at a press conference, adding the nowdefunct Kingfisher Airlines was given loans bypassing all norms, laws and regulations.

“Gandhi should resign from all the posts he holds,” Goyal said, after Rahul Gandhi held a press conference at noon demanding Arun Jaitley’s resignation.


On Mallya’s alleged meeting with Jaitley as claimed by the fugitive businessman, Goyal said Mallya was a criminal and his words should not be taken seriously.

“Mallya has no credibility as he is under the glare of law and is a criminal.”

The railways minister also alleged that it was due to Gandhi family’s “relations” with Mallya that banks were “pressured” by the then UPA government to “sanction loans” to the fugitive businessman.

At another press conference earlier in the day, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that the UPA under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh had offered “sweet deals” to now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. “It appears through a chain of documents that Kingfisher Airlines was owned not by Vijay Mallya, but by the Gandhi family,” Patra alleged.

The Congress party has dismissed these allegations.