Cong indispensable, not keen on heading UPA, says Sharad Pawar

Pune, April 3

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Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar today said he won’t lead an anti-BJP front and was also not keen on becoming the UPA chairperson.

Speaking to reporters at Kolhapur, he said the Congress could not be excluded from any initiative aimed at providing an alternative to the BJP at the Centre.

“I am not going to take up any responsibility to lead any front comprising various parties against the BJP,” he said.

In the same breath, Pawar also said that he won’t lead the UPA, currently helmed by the Congress. “Recently, some youth workers of our party (NCP) passed a resolution asking me to become the chairperson of the UPA. But I am not at all interested in that position. I am not going to get into that. I will not take up that responsibility,” the former Union minister said. “When it is said that the Opposition should come together, then some facts need not be neglected. Mamata Banerjee’s TMC is the strongest party in West Bengal. At the same time, regional parties are also strong in their respective states,” Pawar said.

He said the Congress had a pan-India presence. “You will find Congress workers in every village, district and state in the country. Reality is that the Congress, which has a wide presence, must be taken on board while providing an alternative (to BJP),” the NCP chief said. — PTI

Anti-BJP front

I am not going to take up any responsibility to lead any front comprising various parties against the BJP. Sharad Pawar, NCP chief