The Congress Party on Monday advised former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan to be “sober in expression” and disapproved the language he had used in making allegations against the party leaders.
Mr Chavan had said “Some people had given ‘supari’ to defame me. I am innocent in the Adarsh scam and the inquiry would prove it. I thank Sonia Gandhi for giving me chance to be chief minister twice”. He was addressing a rally of his supporters at Nanded on Sunday.
While flaying his opponents for “masterminding” his ouster from the top post, Mr Chavan came down heavily on the media. He said at present a section of it was busy carrying media trials. “They are trying to pronounce someone guilty without evidence. This should be stopped,” he said.
Without taking any names, he said some were happy after he stepped down, but the “joy was short-lived. One Chavan was replaced with another.”
When reporters drew AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s attention to Mr Chavan’s allegations he said “we don’t express such allegations.” He also viewed that one should be sober in expression. Mr Chavan, the son of late Union home minister S.B. Chavan, has also been facing allegations of “paid news” during the last Maharashtra Assembly elections.