New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and member of the dissident G-23 group within the party, Anand Sharma, met BJP president J.P. Nadda at the latter’s residence in Delhi Thursday, said sources in the Congress.
However, Sharma told a news agency after the meeting that no political significance should be attached to the meeting.
“If I have to meet BJP chief J.P. Nadda, I have every right to meet him. For me, he is just not the BJP president. We come from the same state and share the same alma mater,” Sharma was quoted as saying.
He added: “If I have to meet him, I’ll go openly. What’s the big deal in it? I belong to INC (Indian National Congress). Being ideological opponents doesn’t mean that there’s any personal division between us. We don’t make ideological opponents our social enemies.”
Sharma, a former union minister, had been a long-time spokesperson of the Congress, and was formerly its deputy leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha. He retired from the upper house in March and was not re-nominated by the party after that.
In 2019, he was part of a group of 23 senior leaders in the party who wrote an open letter to then president Sonia Gandhi, asking for organisational restructuring and an active leadership.
Both Nadda and Sharma are from Himachal Pradesh, where assembly elections are scheduled to be held later this year. Sharma was also elected as Rajya Sabha MP from the state, but has never contested a direct election.
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Meeting after denial of Rajya Sabha berth
The meeting has fueled speculations about Sharma possibly joining the BJP after he was denied a Rajya Sabha berth by the Congress high command.
Sharma had reportedly also met Nadda in June, when such speculations had also taken place. However, at the time, Sharma dismissed them as “political mischief”.
This meeting, however, comes at a crucial time for the G-23 formation, which has lost most of its big leaders, who have either left the party or made peace with the Gandhis.
Sharma was a part of the party’s Chintan Shivir in Udaipur in May, before which Sonia Gandhi had reached out to members of the dissident group.
After the Shivir, he was also made a part of Sonia’s special advisory group, along with fellow G-23 member, Ghulam Nabi Azad.
However, when it came to ticket distribution for the Rajya Sabha, both Sharma, Azad and all other G-23 members, except Mukul Wasnik, were overlooked.
Thereafter, Sharma was missing from the show of solidarity against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, when he was summoned by the ED last month.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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