Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra rumoured to have grounded Kolkata fashion carnival

Security concerns over Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra are apparently what have brought the Indian Fashion Carnival (IFC) scheduled to take place in Kolkata (September 10-12) to a halt.

The grapevine had earlier named them as two big-ticket show-stoppers: Priyanka for designer Soumitra Mandal and Rahul for Riyaz Gangji for the khadi collection at the grand finale. It was meant to be a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. “The reports are incorrect! We don’t know where this information is coming from as we are not aware of any such development,” says an official from the office of the Congress General Secretary.

Close on the heels of a denial from the office of the Gandhi scion, the organizers of the Kolkata fashion carnival announced that it has been ‘indefinitely postponed’. “We promise to return to you soon to announce the new dates...We are also very surprised at the way some very important and big dignitaries were linked with IFC as probable guests without any attribution from us,” says Pratik Sen, the director of the organizing company, hinting at the Rahul-Priyanka controversy.

Designer Riyaz Gangji hinted that Rahul Gandhi was indeed slated to be the show-stopper while talking to DNA.  “I was all set to fly to Kolkata when I received this mail from them (the organizers) saying that the event is cancelled. I have no clue what went wrong in the past couple of days as we  just had a press conference to announce the event. My entire collection is ready and now the show is cancelled!”

The buzz doing the rounds is that there were ample security concerns regarding Rahul and Priyanka which forced the organisers to cancel the event.