The Hindu : NCP looking to work with Congress: Pawar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 27, 2004

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NCP looking to work with Congress: Pawar

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI, MARCH 26. The Nationalist Congress Party president, Sharad Pawar, today ruled out the possibility of any kind of relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the post-poll scenario and indicated that he was looking to work with the Congress. "I do not want to have anything to do with the BJP either now or after the polls," Mr. Pawar said.

Releasing his party's manifesto and the list of its candidates, Mr. Pawar downplayed the issue of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. "That issue is not relevant at the moment." He sought to explain the omission of any mention of the issue in the manifesto on the ground that since the Congress itself was not insisting on her leadership, raising it at this moment would only benefit the BJP. "After the polls, all the secular parties will sit together and decide who will lead the combination," Mr. Pawar said.

The change in the NCP leadership's attitude towards the Congress was further reflected in the position adopted by Mr. Pawar on Rahul Gandhi's entry into politics. He made it clear that he did not consider it as a promotion of dynastic politics. "Why talk of him alone. The sons of Jaswant Singh and Vasundhra Raje have also been given ticket," he said. In its manifesto, the NCP has pledged its support to the demand for smaller States such as Delhi and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. In reply to queries from the media, Mr. Pawar came out in support of carving out separate States of Vidarbha and Telangana.

The party extended its support for a constitutional amendment to provide a fixed term for the Lok Sabha. "The country cannot afford the luxury of frequent parliamentary elections," he said and added that he was not opposed to the suggestion that the Lok Sabha Speaker be elected unopposed, "provided the Speaker has been purely independent and impartial in the discharge of his duties and has not participated in the activities of any political party."

Alongside its manifesto, the NCP released a list of 24 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. It has decided to contest 18 seats in Maharashtra, 6 in Uttar Pradesh, and one seat each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Manipur, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and West Bengal.

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