'Not the senior leader who wept before Sonia': BJP MP Ashok Chavan reacts to Rahul Gandhi's remark

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.