Sharad Pawar refutes report of his ‘secret’ meeting with Modi

Union minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday denied media reports of his meeting with BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The report is completely mischievous, baseless and false, he tweeted.

“News of my meeting with Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Jan 17 appeared in a news paper is completely mischchievous, baseless & false.” (sic)

“During state visits or in chief ministers conferences in Delhi, I meet CM’s and barring these occasions, never met Modi in last one year,” he wrote in his tweet. This comes at a time when there are speculations of a growing discomfort in the Congress-NCP alliance at the Centre.

According to a Marathi daily, Sharad Pawar has almost decided to end his relationship with Congress and UPA after the Lok Sabha elections. The daily ‘Loksatta’ claimed that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar secretly met in New Delhi on January 17 to discuss the new alliance. The report of his meeting with Modi was later picked up by some other media houses.