Jayanthi's charges against Rahul baseless: Digvijaya

Allegations by former central minister Jayanthi Natarajan that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had interfered in the functioning of the environment ministry were baseless, party general secretary Digvijaya Singh said Friday.

"It's absolutely wrong to say that our president Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi ever interfered in the functioning of the UPA government. The ministers were free to take decisions," he told reporters on the margins of a party meeting here.

Natarajan, who quit the party earlier in the day, had accused Rahul Gandhi of interfering in her ministry's functioning when she was the central environment and forests minister in the UPA-2 government. She levelled the charges in a letter she wrote to Sonia Gandhi recently.

Singh however refuted the claim. "One thing I know is that Rahul will be the last person to interfere in the functioning of any ministry. Therefore, I think this kind of allegations by someone who got everything in life from Congress is uncalled for," he said after chairing a meeting of the party's state unit coordination committee.

He also recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi making a veiled reference to the removal of Natarajan from the ministry in December 2013 and saying he had heard of "Jayanthi tax", referring to allegations against her during her tenure.

"She (Natarajan) has to clarify whether Modi's allegations are correct or not. Rahul Gandhi would have become a minister if he wanted to involve himself with a ministry," he added.