New Delhi, Dec 21: A day after his appointment as chairman of Delhi Metro, Madan Lal Khurana today said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been invited "only as a guest" and will not be jointly inaugurating the Metro service along with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee scheduled for Tuesday. "Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi has been invited only as a guest as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be performing the flagging off and switching on ceremony", Khurana told reporters here.

"There is no precedence when the Opposition leader has jointly inaugurated an event with the Prime Minister", he added.

Brushing aside criticism which projected him as an anti-Metro lobbyist, the former Delhi chief minister said "I am not against Metro and infact I initiated the process."

Adopting a conciliatory posture, he said "the political parties setting aside their differences should join hands and hasten the completion of the project."

Khurana, however, declined to comment on the criticism regarding his appointment by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

Sheila Dikshit had yesterday flayed Khurana's appointment and termed it as Centre's ploy to hijack the credit for the project with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly elections. Bureau Report