Shimla: Priyanka Vadra with mother Sonia Gandhi, the congress president, in tow left Shimla today after spending the night over at Hotel Wildflower Hall and discussing building plans on the site of a farm house that the Vadra’s are planning to build near the presidential estate ‘ The Retreat’.
For security reasons the visit was kept a closely guarded secret till the two left today.
Sources privy to the visit said that Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra spent a lot of time on the once acre plot site where the proposed farm house is proposed to be built.
Sonia Gandhi who was recently named among the 100 top influential people in the world for 2008 by Time magazine, landed at Kalyani helipad in Charabra, early on Thursday.
The helipad is close to The Retreat, a summer home marked for the President and the helipad is otherwise exclusively used for movement of the President.
The congress president who is also the UPA chairperson was on a private visit.
The land for the house had been approved by the earlier congress government, something which the incumbent Prem Kumar Dhumal led BJP government too endorsed.
For security reasons, construction permission on the land site that is close to the Presidential estate has also been approved by the President’s office.
The Gandhi family is emotionally attached to Charabara hills near Shimla and do make regular summer visits here, something which they even did when late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was alive.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
