Guwahati, Mar 18 : While the issue of appointing Sudhansghu Mittal as BJP observer for Assam continues to cause a rift between BJP president Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Tuesday denied having ever dealt with or through Mittal to work out its alliance with the saffron party.
“We had never negotiated with or through Mittal on any occasion for the alliance with the BJP. It is, however, a fact that he did accompany Sushma Swaraj in one of the first meetings between leaders of the two party. Mittal accompanied Sushma Swaraj to the meeting and she introduced him as a member of her party. That is all. We had never met or contacted him after that,” Hitendra Nath Goswami, general secretary of the AGP, said here.
“We do not know in what capacity he (Mittal) had accompanied Sushma Swaraj. We definitely thought he was part of the BJP delegation led by Swaraj,” he told The Indian Express.
At later stages when the BJP entrusted S S Ahluwalia to carry on the negotiations, Mittal was never present, the AGP general secretary asserted. “It is the BJP’s internal matter whom it deputes to talk to us or whom it appoints as observer,” Goswami added.
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