Tripathi's remarks on Rahul his personal view: Patel

Hours after NCP General Secretary D P Tripathi attacked Rahul Gandhi for his statement blaming coalition compulsion for price rise, senior party leader Praful Patel sought to play it down, saying it was the NCP spokesman's personal opinion.

Hours after NCP General Secretary D P Tripathi attacked Rahul Gandhi for his statement blaming coalition compulsion for price rise, senior party leader Praful Patel sought to play it down, saying it was the NCP spokesman's personal opinion.

HT Image

"What Tripathi said may be his personal views," Patel told reporters here, after Tripathi's statement that Rahul's remarks should reflect "humility" and not "arrogance", irked Congress.

"We (NCP) are with the UPA and will remain with it. Rahul did not say anything about Pawar and there is no point distorting the Congress leader's statement," the Union Civil Aviation Minister said.

"There is also no point giving much weightage (to the controversy). Why make mountain out of a molehill," he said.

Earlier, Tripathi, whose party is a major constituent of the UPA, hit out at Rahul for blaming coalition compulsion for price rise, a day after the latter made comments which seemed to target Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar over price rise.

Describing Rahul's statement as "unfortunate", Tripathi said no single minister, including Pawar, could be held responsible for the price rise as "it (reining in prices) is the collective responsibility" of the government.