NEW DELHI: Former French president Francois Hollande on Friday said that he was not aware if the Indian government had put any sort of pressure on Reliance and Dassault to work together for the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale jet deal.Hollande, while responding to a question by news agency AFP, said that "only Dassault can comment on this".Hollande, in an interview to investigative website Mediapart, had earlier claimed that France "did not have a say in that (choosing Reliance)."However, in a subsequent statement on Friday, the former French leader insisted that France "did not choose Reliance in any way"."It was the Indian government that proposed this service group (Reliance), and Dassault who negotiated with Anil Ambani. We did not have a choice, we took the interlocutor who was given to us," Hollande, who was president of France from 2012-2017, was quoted as saying by the website. Hollande's comments on Friday had stoked a debate between the government and the opposition parties. The Congress has accused the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre of favouring a private conglomerate over a public company in the aircraft deal.However, officials in India and France have maintained that Dassault had freely chosen to partner with Reliance, despite Anil Ambani's firm having no previous experience in the aeronautics sector.In a statement issued last night, Dassault Aviation had clarified that it was the firm's personal decision to partner with Reliance for the Rafale deal."This offsets contract is delivered in compliance with the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2016 regulations. In this framework, and in accordance with the policy of 'Make in India', Dassault Aviation has decided to make a partnership with India's Reliance Group. This is Dassault Aviation's choice," the French aerospace major had said.Earlier today, the BJP rejected former French president Francois Hollande's claim on the Rafale deal, saying it does not know under what compulsion he said so.BJP added that Dassault and Reliance Defence had entered into an agreement as early as 2012 when the Congress-led UPA was in power and refuted the allegation that the Modi government had favoured the Anil Ambani-led company.(With inputs from AFP)