BHOPAL: Congress’ national media panelist Alok Sharma has been served notice by the party for reportedly making “unauthorised, baseless and defamatory” statements about former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and ex-MP Congress chief Kamal Nath.
In the notice served by the party’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera on Thursday, Sharma has been asked to clarify his statements within two days from the receipt of the notice. In case the clarification isn’t received or is unsatisfactory, then appropriate action will be initiated against him.
“These statements coming from a senior office-bearer such as yourself, are not only unauthorised, baseless and defamatory, but also demonstrate an attempt to undermine the party and you senior colleagues,” read the notice, whose copy was shared on social media platform X by the MP Congress’s official twitter handle on Thursday.
The Congress’ notice to Sharma came around a week after Sharma made the statements about Nath, suspecting his nexus with the ruling BJP.
Just a few hours after Sharma was served notice by the AICC, a small clip of the opposition party’s national media panelist was shared by MP BJP spokesperson Narendra Saluja over the same social media platform. Saluja was formerly a close aide of Kamal Nath, but joined the BJP last year.
In the video clip of Sharma’s recent conversation with a news channel, the Congress’s national media panelist is heard saying, “I’ve no problems in saying that somewhere Kamal Nath’s acts over the last 5-6 years suggest him having Saath-Gaanth (nexus) with the BJP. Many workers of the party in MP too harbour similar suspicions.”
Importantly, Sharma’s statements which were televised on the national media had given fodder to speculations in MP’s media and political circles, about possibility of the septuagenarian Nath and his Chhindwara MP son Nakul Nath contemplating to end their long association with the Congress and take alternative political route.
Earlier, on January 15, journalist-turned-media advisor to Nath and the MP Congress had termed as baseless, all reports on social media platforms about Kamal Nath having sought time to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on January 21.
2-day time to reply
Congress national media panelist Alok Sharma has been asked to clarify his remarks that Kamal Nath was responsible for the poll debacle within two days from the receipt of the notice. If Sharma fails to do so, action will be taken against him, the notice says.