Rahul, Vadra accepted my hospitality: Lalit Modi

Mr. Modi tweeted saying Mr. Vadra and Mr. Gandhi had been beneficiaries of hospitality extended by him.

Former IPL chairman Lalit Modi.

Former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi on Saturday dragged Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi and his brother-in-law, Robert Vadra, into the ongoing controversy surrounding his links with the high and mighty.

Mr. Modi tweeted saying Mr. Vadra and Mr. Gandhi had been beneficiaries of hospitality extended by him.

Posting undated pictures on Twitter of the two watching a cricket match, Mr. Modi claimed that they were seated in his box. “Breaking News: I hope @OfficeOfRG informed @INCIndia that he was a beneficiary of my hospitality. He sat in my box,” Mr. Modi tweeted.

‘Junior’ Modi helping ‘Senior’ Modi: Congress

The Congress on Saturday accused Lalit Modi of using diversionary tactics to save Bharatiya Janata Party leaders embroiled in the controversy over helping him.

Responding to Mr Modi’s tweet and picture claiming to have offered hospitality to party vice president Rahul Gandi and Robert Vadra, senior Congress leader Ajay Maken said, “The junior Modi is trying to help the senior Modi,” adding that the former cricketing official was trying to draw attention away from the real issue.

He however, did not deny Mr. Modi’s charge of the Congress vice-president and Mr Vadra enjoying the hospitality extended to them. “A lot of us get free passes and we go to watch matches.”

“What is the real issue, who went to see a match or who helped a fugitive get travel documents and immigration papers by misusing their official powers?” he asked. “The question is who helped Lalit Modi and who benefitted from him,” Mr. Maken added.

While Mr. Gandhi’s office remained silent on the issue, it tweeted about his meeting with internet entrepreneurs and later about the UPSC results on his behalf.

Mr. Modi has been tweeting every day about his links and meetings with important people in public life. He has been tweeting about wide ranging allegations against political and business leaders and about more exposes on a website in the coming days.

On June 26, he had tweeted about “running into” Mr. Vadra and his wife Priyanka Gandhi at a restaurant in London.

The Congress had reacted quickly by saying there was no social interaction between them.

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Lalit Modi's friends & foes

2 July: Lalit Modi has said that he will reveal BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal 's "rags to riches story" in the coming days.

2 July: Modi offered a job on Indofil Board to Sushma Swaraj's husband, >Swaraj Kaushal , the Congress said. The “nexus and quid pro quo” between the two had been established beyond doubt.

1 July: Modi said that BJP MP Varun Gandhi met him in London "a few years ago" and offered to "settle everything" with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

30 June: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said there was " >a criminal nexus between Mr. Modi and the Vasundhara Raje family ." They had "forcibly and illegally" occupied the Government owned Dholpur Palace.

27 June: Quite out of the blue came a >resounding endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on twitter from Lalit Modi: "Our PM is most savy man... When he bats he will hit the ball out of the park."

26 June: Mr. Modi got the Congress anxious when he tweeted about having "run into" >Priyanka and Robert Vadra in London. But the Congress was quick to deny it.

23 June: When an instagram picture of Mr. Modi with his "brother" Ronald K. Noble (then the chief of Interpol) emerged, >Noble said hadn't received any request from India to assist in any investigations.

22 June:>Dushyant Singh , son of Vasundhara Raje came under the spotlight after media reports claimed his company had received Rs. 11.63 crore in investments from Lalit Modi in 2008.

22 June: After news channels flashed photos of Modi with Mumbai Police Commissioner >Rakesh Maria in London, Mr. Maria said he had only asked Mr. Modi "to return to Mumbai".

22 June: Modi > took on former Union Minister Rajiv Shukla . Who paid for his private trips to London, he asked. Karunanidhi and Karti Chidambaram enjoyed IPL hospitality for free, he said.

21 June: Just as the BJP tried to do some damage control, Modi fired another salvo. Nothing moved in BCCI or IPL without Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley 's say-so, >he tweeted .

20 June The Sunday Times reported that Modi >used the names of British royalty , including Prince Charles and his brother Andrew while seeking his travel papers from the U.K. Home Office.

19 June Mr. Modi >blamed President Pranab Mukherjee for engineering the Enforcement Directorate’s probe against him.

17 June Documents supplied by Mr. Modi's lawyer revealed that >Vasundhara Raje had, in August 2011, backed his immigration application on the condition it wouldn’t be made known to India.

16 June In an unexpected twist >media baron Rupert Murdoch figured in the controversy. In a TV interview, Mr. Modi said Mr. Murdoch was miffed with him and masterminded the Sunday Times expose.

15 June At a press conference Modi’s counsel said that >Shashi Tharoor Salman Khursheed and P. Chidambaram scuttled his chances of securing a visa in U.K.

14 June Hints at fissures in the BJP were made by party member >Kirti Azad , who pointed to an in-house conspiracy targeting Sushma. In his tweets, Mr. Azad referred to a party insider.

11 June In a follow up to the first story the >name of Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj comes in as yet another senior politician who is making a case for Lalit Modi.

4 June London-based Sunday Times alleged that Labour parliamentarian of Indian origin >Keith Vaz helped Mr. Modi get his papers to stay in the UK despite his position as a fugitive from the law in India.