Mumbai:
Union minister Sharad Pawar has denied a newspaper report that he held a "secret" meeting with the BJP's Narendra Modi last week.
"News of my meeting with Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Jan 17 appeared in a newspaper is completely mischievous, baseless & false (sic)," tweeted Mr Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party or NCP a longstanding ally of the Congress in the UPA government at the Centre.
He said he had "never met Modi in the last one year" except at formal meetings or conferences." Mr Modi is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for general elections due by May.
The front-page report in Marathi daily Loksatta today alleged that the two leaders had met for nearly 30 minutes in Delhi on that Friday two weeks ago. So secret was the meeting, the report alleged, that even senior leaders of the NCP and the BJP were not aware of it. It hinted at a growing closeness between the two parties.
An NCP spokesperson said, "Mr Pawar was not even in Delhi on the day when the meeting was supposed to have taken place."
The newspaper report comes only a day after Mr Pawar's party colleague Praful Patel seemed to frown at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's allegation that Narendra Modi "abetted" the 2002 Gujarat riots.
"There's no point to comment because it is for each one to give his or her version but the fact remains that perception today is important and if the judicial system has given a certain finality to any controversy, I think we should let it rest there," Mr Patel, also a senior minister at the Centre, had said.
The NCP leader was apparently referring to a court ruling in December that upheld a Supreme Court panel's investigation clearing Mr Modi in the communal riots of 2002 in his state.
Some months ago, Mr Pawar had shared the stage with the BJP's Nitin Gadkari at a business-related function in Nagpur and had said, "There are no untouchables in politics and for social causes."
Both leaders belong to Maharashtra and are known to be close.
The NCP and Congress have been partners for over a decade now, both at the Centre and in Maharashtra, where 48 Lok sabha seats are at stake.