Mumbai: CPN leader Praful Patel claimed on Saturday that veteran politician and party chief Sharad Pawar was unable to become prime minister twice in the 1990s when he was with Congress due to a “darbar clique” in that party he acted against him. Speaking on the occasion of Pawar’s 80th birthday, Patel said that this “unfinished dream can be fulfilled.”
“Pawar strengthened his position as a vanguard leader in Congress in a very short time. He was surely barred for a prime ministerial role in 1991 and 1996, but Delhi’s ‘darbar’ (nepotism) policy put a damper on it. It was definitely a loss. personal for him, but also for the party and the country, “Patel wrote in a newspaper article. He claimed that an “intriguing clique” of the ‘darbar’ Congress in Delhi used to engineer revolts in state units to weaken strong leaders.
When asked about the article, Patel told reporters in Mumbai that “Pawar missed the opportunity to become prime minister twice … ‘Bante, Bante rah gaye’ … Now if all of Maharashtra supports him, our unfinished dream can be fulfilled. ” He spoke after attending an event organized by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to mark Pawar’s birthday.
“What I said (in the article) was that we had seen when (the leaders) were with the Congress,” said the PNC Secretary General. When contacted, a senior congressional leader said that Pawar had rejoined Congress in 1986, “and in Delhi his image was that he was not a loyal congressman. Also in 1978 he had rebelled against the party.”
The leader, however, declined to comment on Patel’s article. Patel wrote that after the death of Rajiv Gandhi (in the assassination in 1991), there was a strong thought among the workers and leaders of Congress that Pawar should be appointed President of Congress.
“However, the ‘darbar’ clique opposed the idea of a strong leader and hatched a plan to make PV Narasimha Rao the head of the party. Rao was ill and had not even disputed the Lok Sabha polls. He planned to move. to Hyderabad and withdraw. However, he was convinced and was appointed president of Congress only to oppose Pawar’s candidacy, “Patel said. In addition, he wrote that Congress was very close to achieving a majority after the Lok Sabha elections held after the death of Rajiv Gandhi.
“A large group of leaders in Congress believed that the candidate for Prime Minister should be young and dynamic like Pawar, who has good control over the administration … The clique used or abused the name Sonia Gandhi to anoint Rao as prime minister, “he said. The former Union minister said that Rao had fomented animosity against Pawar and always thought of reducing the latter’s influence.
“In 1996, Congress won 145 seats. HD Deve Gowda, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, as well as leftist leaders, said they will support Congress if Pawar is appointed prime minister, but Rao did not give in and Congress was seen Forced to support Deve. Gowda from the outside. “When Rao resigned as Speaker of Congress, he lobbied for Sitaram Kesri’s name as his successor to ensure that Pawar was not selected,” Patel wrote.
Pawar had served as Defense Minister between June 1991 and March 1993, when PV Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister. He left Congress in 1999 citing Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin and formed the NCP.
Later, Pawar joined the congressional-led UPA government in 2004. He served as Union agriculture minister until the 2014 elections in Lok Sabha. One of the main opposition leaders with a political career spanning more than five decades, Pawar is seen as a pivot of the anti-BJP front in the country.
Pawar was instrumental in shaping the NCP-Congress combination’s unlikely link to Shiv Sena last year, after Sena fell out with its ally BJP following assembly polls.
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