Sharad Pawar sets 'tough terms' before Congress

NASHIK (MAHARASHTRA): In a significant development ahead of the possible announcement of Lok Sabha poll schedule, Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP) chief Sharad Pawar reportedly laid down strict conditions before its UPA ally Congress.

Sharad Pawar on Sunday urged the Congress to take a lead in declaring national-level, pre-poll alliances with its partners, IANS reported.

"As a big party, the Congress should come out with the pre-poll alliance and alliance partners should get a chance to contest from constituencies in which they are strong," he said.

Pawar said although he has spoken to different parties like Jayalalitha's AIADMK and N. Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP), no final decision has been taken.

"The NCP does not want to fight the elections on its own. For the present, we are with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)," he said.

Toughening the party's stance on the issue of getting a 50 per cent share of seats in Maharashtra, he said that if the Congress did not relent, then the NCP would have to rethink the issue, IANS said.

Addressing the convention, state Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal urged the Congress to give 50 per cent seats and share the chief minister's post for the forthcoming assembly elections, due later this year.

Justifying the demand, Bhujbal said that this was in view of the fact that the NCP's strength had grown as compared to the Congress. "In such a situation, why should we settle for a secondary position?" he asked.

According to IANS, apart from Bhujbal, other senior NCP leaders like Tariq Anwar and state president RR Patil spoke at the convention.
Times Now report says that commenting on his possible meeting with Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, Pawar said, "Sure, I want to meet him and wish him good health."

Answering a question about Congress leader Govindrao Adik, Pawar said he respected Adik's feelings. "But he (Adik) will be better off moving to the NCP," Times Now quoted Pawar as saying.

Pawar said that there is a feeling among NCP workers that the party should insist on sharing the office of chief minister of Maharashtra on the basis of the formula which the Congress has devised in Jammu and Kashmir.

"State NCP chief and former deputy chief minister RR Patil has communicated to me this feeling," Pawar told Times Now.

Faultlines in the ruling alliance of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party came out in the open on Thursday following criticism of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in an NCP periodical.

The periodical, Rashtravadi, contained an editorial in its latest edition which was critical of Sonia and Rahul and accused them of being rude towards constituent parties of the UPA.

Tempers shot up in the Congress camp with senior party MP Gurudas Kamat threatening that his party will have to rethink its alliance with the NCP if the latter ridiculed its leaders. He said Sonia and Rahul have been courteous and humble in their conduct towards leaders of all parties which constitute the UPA. His threat assumed significance in the background of the NCP hobnobbing with the Shiv Sena.

The Congress is already upset with the NCP's open projection of Pawar as its prime ministerial candidate since it clashes with its own ambition of having Rahul as the next prime minister.