Mumbai:

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan on Monday said he was not the “…senior leader who left the Congress crying” as mentioned by Rahul Gandhi at the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ event in Mumbai.

Rahul Gandhi is set to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, taking his party from Wayanad in Kerala and most likely Amethi in Uttar Pradesh Compete in the base camp. turned enemy and many viewed him as Mr. Chavan.

Mr Gandhi said a “senior leader” had entered the BJP to evade scrutiny by investigative agencies, repeating the opposition’s accusation that the ruling party used the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax Department and other agencies to intimidate rival politicians, especially It is an election before the general election.

Read | ‘He cried and spoke to my mother’: Rahul on exiting ‘leader’

“…a senior leader of the state left the Congress. He cried and told my mother (former Congress president Sonia Gandhi)… ‘I am ashamed. I have no power to fight this force. I have no desire to go to jail. ‘.”

Reacting to the statement, the former Maharashtra chief minister, who joined the BJP last month, pointed out that Mr Gandhi did not actually name anyone in his attack on the ruling BJP.

“But if he said that about me, it is illogical and baseless. The fact is that before I resigned from the Congress party, I was working at the party headquarters. I resigned as MLA and a few minutes later, “I Also left the party. Until then, no one knew that I had resigned,” he said in a video message.

“I have never met Sonia Gandhi. (To say) I have met Sonia Gandhi and expressed my emotions is baseless. It is a political statement from an electoral perspective,” he continued .

Two prominent political leaders from Maharashtra quit the Congress party this year. Former Union minister Milind Deora defected to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, while Chavan defected to the BJP ).

Read | Milind Deora quits Congress to join Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde

Mr Chavan faces three pending cases; two of them related to the Adarsh ​​Cooperative Housing Society scam in November 2010, which led to his resignation as chief minister.

In an interview with New Delhi TV just days after switching to the BJP and being nominated for the Lok Sabha, the former Congress leader described his former party as a “sinking ship” filled with discontent.

Read | ‘Congress not changing is the problem’: Ashok Chavan tells NDTV

Mr Chavan also criticized the Congress for failing to prepare for the Lok Sabha elections starting on April 19; from that date Maharashtra will go to polls in five phases. “Congress vs. BJP? I don’t think they are ready to fight (and) if you don’t fight, how will you win?” he said.

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