‘Will meet Nadda openly if I have to, it is my right’: Congress leader Anand Sharma

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 7

Congress leader Anand Sharma on Thursday said if he had to meet BJP chief JP Nadda he would do so openly as “it is my right”.

Sharma was responding to a Tribune query on whether he had met Nadda today. There was speculation that Sharma met the BJP chief in the evening.

Sharma, however, denied any meeting today.

“I don’t want to air speculation. All I can say is I have every right to meet JP Nadda. We are from the same state, the same university. Ideological differences do not mean social and personal enmity or apartheid. If I have to meet him, I will meet him openly. Also I am proud that someone who is from my own university and state is president of the ruling party,” Sharma told the Tribune.

The former deputy leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha whom the party didn’t renominate to the upper house also disclosed that the Himachal Pradesh University Alumni Association had invited him and Nadda bothon July 30to Shimla to honour them for their social and political contributions.

“We have both discussed the invitation and will see whether to attend,” Sharma said indicating likelihood that the two might attend the event together.

Himachal elections are due later this year.

Sharma is a member of the G-23 group in the Congress, which sought party overhaul. He and G-23 veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad were not sent back to Rajya Sabha after their terms ended.