Ashok Chavan denies meeting Sonia Gandhi before joining BJP

Former Congress leader Ashok Chavan denies meeting Sonia Gandhi before joining BJP, calls Rahul Gandhi's claims baseless.

BJP Rajya Sabha member Ashok Chavan, who last month quit the Congress, on March 18 said he did not meet Sonia Gandhi before leaving the grand old party and dismissed Rahul Gandhi's comments in this regard as "baseless".

Addressing a rally in Mumbai on Sunday ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi claimed a leader from Maharashtra cried in front of his mother Sonia Gandhi, saying he felt ashamed that he could not "fight this power any more and didn’t want to go to jail”.

Reacting to it, Mr. Chavan in a video message on Monday said Rahul Gandhi made the statement in a rally on Sunday and did not take anybody's name.

"But if he is saying that about me, then it is illogical and baseless. The truth is that till I resigned from the Congress, I was working at the party headquarters. I resigned from the post of MLA and a few moments later resigned from the party also. Till then, no one knew that I had resigned," the former state chief minister said.

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"I never met Sonia Gandhi. It is baseless (to say) that I met Sonia Gandhi and expressed my emotions. It is a political statement from the election point of view," Mr. Chavan said.

After Mr. Chavan quit the Congress last month, he joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which nominated him for the Rajya Sabha poll from Maharashtra.