It has been less than a month since the Lalit Modi controversy hit the headlines, but the saga has snowballed into proportions no one could have anticipated, drawing in more players, making unrelated exposés, and revealing fissures within the ruling party.
Lalit Modi's friends & foes
Take a look at the growing cast of characters in the Lalit Modi visa saga since the the story broke in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2015:
4 July: Modi dragged in Rahul Gandhi and
>Robert Vadra , into the controversy, tweeting that they had enjoyed his hospitality
2 July: Lalit Modi 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.
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