Just hours after settling the political tussle in its ruled state Punjab, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi is in a holiday mood.
She reached Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, by air in the morning from where she headed straight to her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s cottage located amid forests of pine and cedar on the suburbs of the Himachal Pradesh capital.
Sonia Gandhi is expected to stay here for two to three days and there is no engagement to meet any party functionary during the stay, an official here said.
Priyanka’s five-room cottage — with wooden frames and shingled exteriors and a sloping tiled roof — is furnished with interiors at a height of more than 8,000 feet in Charabra, some 15 km uphill from here.
Priyanka along with her children and mother regularly visit the cottage, just close to Wildflower Hall, on a four-bigha plus agricultural plot that was purchased in 2007.
The Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was seen holidaying in Shimla on Saturday amidst a crisis in the party’s Punjab unit. Priyanka Vadra was seen cooling her heels at her bungalow at Chharabra—a high-security zone in the Shimla hills.
Priyanka Vadra—daughter of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi—bought the plot of private land in three installments in 2007, 2011, and 2013.
The HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act 1972 debars non-agriculturists from buying land in the state without the government’s permission.
The permission is granted under Section 118 of the act, which Priyanka obtained from incumbent governments, which include both Congress and the BJP.
(With inputs from agencies)