MUMBAI: The head of the Nationalist Congress Party (PCN), Sharad Pawar, had the opportunity to become prime minister not once but twice, but his detractors in Congress denied it, said Praful Patel, leader of the PCN and close confidante of his supreme. He claimed that Pawar was unable to get the highest post mainly due to ‘Darbar Policy’ in Congress.
“A clique of leaders abused Sonia Gandhi’s name to beat Pawar’s chances in 1991,” he said.
The article was published in Shiv Sena’s spokesman, Saamana, on Saturday, on the 80th birthday of PNC Supreme Sharad Pawar.
“After Rajiv Gandhi’s unfortunate death during the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, Congress was in a state of shock. There was a demand to appoint Pawar party chairman to handle the situation. However, the Durbar clique opposed the idea of a strong leader and hatched a plan to make PV Narasimha Rao the head of the party, “said Patel, a former trade union minister in an article in Saamana.
The NCP leader said that Rao’s stubbornness in 1996 to make way for Pawar led him to miss a shot at the top post again in 1996.
“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 becomes prime minister, but Rao did not give in and Congress will he was forced to support Deve Gowda from the outside. When Rao stepped down as president of Congress, he lobbied for Sitaram Kesri’s name as his successor to ensure that Pawar was not selected, “Patel wrote.
He said in the article that the “clique” within Congress was working to undermine strong party leaders. “Pawar strengthened his position as a vanguard leader in Congress in a very short time. He was surely barred for a prime ministerial post in 1991 and 1996, but Delhi’s durbar (nepotism) politics put a wrench. Definitely a personal loss for him. , but also for the party and the country, “added Patel.
Congress did not officially react to Patel’s article, but a party leader, who did not want to be named, said Pawar, who had resigned from Congress in 1978 to rejoin in 1986, was not considered loyal to the party. In addition, in 1991 the majority of congressional deputies came from the south and backed Rao, he said.
Less deserving people in Congress made sure Pawar didn’t rise to the top: Shiv Sena
Commenting on Patel’s article, Shiv Sena MP for Rajya Sabha, Sanjay Raut, said that “the less deserving people feared Pawar and made sure that he did not rise to the top.” He reiterated that Pawar should have become prime minister long ago, but added that for him, age is not a barrier.
Pawar, four times Prime Minister of Maharashtra, was Minister of Defense between June 1991 and March 1993. He left Congress in 1999 citing Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin and formed the NCP, but later joined the UPA government headed by Congress in 2004 and served as the Union Minister of Agriculture for the next ten years when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister.
Last year, Pawar was instrumental in forming the NCP-Congress combination’s unlikely link to Shiv Sena after the Thackeray-led party clashed with its ally BJP after the assembly elections.
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