Union Law and Justice & Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid held a secret meeting with anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare in Nashik on June 23. The meeting was reportedly organised by a Shiv Sena MP at Firodia Guest House on the Pune-Nashik Highway.
Hazare while addressing a press conference with Baba Ramdev in Pune on Tuesday did not deny meeting Khurshid. "I will talk about it at the right time. A fight about it is going to begin," replied Hazare when he was asked if he had met Khurshid on June 23.
Sources say Khurshid and his wife Louise Khurshid travelled to Nashik to meet Anna and request him to remove Khurshid's name from the list of corrupt ministers released by Hazare and his associates.
Team Anna had on May 26 accused 15 Cabinet Ministers including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of indulging in corruption. Team Anna had sent a letter sent to the Prime Minister along with several documents signed by Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia in which the details of alleged corruption cases were given
The ministers against whom allegations were levelled include Home Minister P Chidambaram, former finance minister and presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Praful Patel, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, former Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Virbhadra Singh, Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Shipping Minister GK Vasan, Chemical and Fertiliser Minister MK Alagiri, New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah, Power Ministe Sushil Kumar Shinde and Khurshid.