Senior Maharashtra leader Ashok Chavan, who quit Congress and became BJP's Rajya Sabha MP recently, on 18th March refuted Rahul Gandhi when he claimed without mentioning the name that a former Congress leader broke down before Sonia Gandhi before leaving the party.
Responding to Gandhi's allegations, Chavan in a video message said that Gandhi was spreading lies.
"I never met Sonia Gandhi. It is baseless (to say) I met Sonia Gandhi and expressed my emotions. It is a political statement from the election point of view," he said.
"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, from the party also. Till then, no one knew I had resigned," he added.
During a rally in Mumbai, the Congress leader claimed that a "senior leader" had moved to the BJP to evade scrutiny by probe agencies.
"... A senior leader from this state left the Congress. Weeping, he told my mother (ex-Congress boss Sonia Gandhi)... 'I'm ashamed. Don't have the power to fight this force. I do not want to go to jail'," he said.