Spanner in the MVA Unity, NCP Criticise Congress for Twice Blocking Sharad Pawar become the PM
NEW DELHI, Dec 12: Putting yet another spanner in the unity of the “Maha Vikas Aghadi,” the ruling coalition in Maharashtra, a senior Nationalist Congress Party leader in an article has again criticized the Congress for allegedly coming in the way twice of the NCP stalwart Sharad Pawar becoming the prime minister. The critical article was incidentally published in “Saamna,” the official mouthpiece of Shiv Sena, the third party of the MVA triangle.
Though the critical article refer to the period of 1990’s and many of the Congress leaders of the era may not be existing two and half decades later, but it did made some mention of the present Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi which might not go down well with the party. A critical reference on Rahul Gandhi by Pawar at a recent interview had evoked some stern cautioning from the Congress that if the MVA partners want a stable government in Maharashtra, all of them must refrain from making critical remarks about the Congress leaders.
Officially the Congress so far has not commented on the contents of the article but some senior Congress leaders, not willing to be named, however, have repudiated some of the claims made in the article.
In an article written by the NCP top leader Praful Patel and published in “Saamna” on the occasion of Pawar’s 80th birthday on Saturday, he said Pawar had two opportunities to become the Prime Minister of India but his detractors in the Congress party denied him the same both the times.
Recalling the events of early 1990s’, Patel said, “After Rajiv Gandhi’s unfortunate death during the Lok Sabha elections in 1991, the Congress party was in a state of shock. There was a demand to make Pawar party president to handle the situation but some drawing room politicians conspired to block this. They did not want a strong leadership for the party and hence made P V Narsimha Rao the Congress president.”
He also claimed that “After the results of Lok Sabha elections, Congress was close to winning a majority (in Parliament) and again there was demand to choose Pawar as prime minister. However, the same people got together and misused Sonia Gandhi’s name to make Rao prime minister,” Patel said.
“There has been a conspiracy against Pawar since 1989 when he was the chief minister of Maharashtra. I have witnessed how conspiracies were hatched against him in Delhi. I have seen how he lost the prime ministership when he was within a striking distance from the same,” Patel writes.
He has also claimed that Rao was prejudiced against Pawar when the former was the prime minister.
Later in 1996 Lok Sabha elections, Congress lost the elections. Patel claimed that there could have been an opportunity for the Congress to retain power despite the fractured mandate if Pawar was given the top office. “The Congress could win 145 seats. H D Deve Gowda, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and leaders of the Left had shown willingness to be part of the government if Pawar replaced Rao as Congress nominee for prime ministership. Rao was not willing and as such Congress had to extend outside support to Deve Gowda.” Patel has claimed.
According to Patel, later again in 1997, then Congress president Sitaram Kesari withdrew support from the Deve Gowda government. “At least 125 Congress MPs had gathered at Pawar’s residence and extended their support to him but Pawar chose not to take any step so that the Congress did not split. It was the second time when he lost an opportunity to get the prime ministership,” Patel stated.
Patel alleges that Pawar’s targeting by his detractors (in Congress) continued, leading him to float his separate party.
Contradicting Patel’s claims, a senior Congress leader and former Union minister said, “In 1991, the party top brass wanted a nominee who had experience of handling central government portfolios. Rao and Arjun Singh were the front runners. As such Rao was chosen. Pawar had returned to the Congress just a few years ago so the top brass was not comfortable with him. Besides, they also considered the fact that the majority of newly elected MPs of the party were from the south.”
The Congress leader also reasoned why Pawar was left out even in 1996. “In 1996, Congress lost the election and third front parties had more MPs than us so the party decided to respect the mandate and support Deve Gowda.” the leader said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
