Sonia Gandhi reaches Shimla to stay in Priyanka’s wooden cottage

Shimla: As seven districts of Jammu and Kashmir will vote for the first time in an Assembly election in 10 years for Phase 1 polling on Wednesday, Congress former President Sonia Gandhi is in a holiday mood.

She headed straight to her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's cottage located amid forests of pine and cedar in the suburbs of the Himachal Pradesh capital on Tuesday by road from Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. Priyanka Gandhi reached here on Sunday.

Sonia Gandhi is expected to stay here for two to three days and there is no engagement to meet any party functionary during her stay, an official here told IANS.

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.

Sonia Gandhi was shifted to Delhi during the night in October 2018 after she reportedly fell ill during her stay in Shimla.

The cottage, spread over 3.5 bighas (a bigha is about 0.4 hectares), is situated at a height of more than 8,000 feet amid verdant pine and cedar trees.

The state law prohibits outsiders from buying land in the hill state. However, the Congress government in the state in 2007 relaxed the acquisition norms under Section 118 of the Land Reforms and Tenancy Act to facilitate land purchase by Priyanka.

State Congress leader Vidya Stokes played an important role in helping the Vadras buy the three-and-a-half bigha (one bigha is 0.4 hectare) agricultural plot for around Rs 47 lakh.

The plot surrounded by thick pine and cedar forests in Charabra, some 15 km uphill from the Himachal Pradesh capital, lies close to the President's summer resort The Retreat and Oberoi Group's luxury spa Wildflower Hall.

The work for the cottage was given to a Delhi-based architect in 2008. However in 2011, the entire building was pulled down -- not because of any dispute -- but apparently the Gandhi scion was unhappy with the building design and the size of its rooms, said party leaders close to the family.

It was later redesigned and re-constructed by Shimla-based builder Tenzin in the hill architecture style with strong foundations, an open terrace, a drive-in and five bigger rooms that have wooden interiors, shingled exteriors and a sloping tiled roof.

Priyanka is among the few high-profile people who have built houses in Himachal Pradesh and she and her family visit it frequently to inspect the construction work.