Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar is unlikely to attend the third front rally at Bhubaneshwar owing to a "technical snag" in the aircraft.
It was a technical snag that apparently grounded Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar’s flight to Bhubaneswar to attend an election rally on Friday.
The rally was organised by the Third Front, but the seasoned politician claims not to have known that. He apparently mistook the organiser to be the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
Had Pawar landed in Orissa, the snag would have been worse. The event was a stridently anti-Congress (and anti-BJP) affair. Perhaps the fact that his party is ruling Maharashtra in alliance with the Congress and has a seat-sharing arrangement with it made the Maratha politician see the light and put off his bravado for another day, possibly after the results are declared.
The Congress had sternly warned Pawar not to flirt with the Third Front, which includes the Left parties. The NCP chief was told in no uncertain terms that the Congress would be forced to take a stand if he appeared at the rally.
The threat was presumed to be a reference to a review of the alliance between the two parties, particularly in Maharashtra. (According to the Press Trust of India, a source in the Congress said the party would not even have gone in for the alliance with the NCP in Maharashtra had its coalition in Tamil Nadu not received a setback with the desertion by the PMK.)
We accept Pawar’s word: Cong
After creating ripples in political circles by agreeing to attent a Third Front rally, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Friday that he was part of UPA. A technical snag had grounded his flight to Bubaneswar, where he was scheduled to attend the Third Front meeting.
Addressing the media in Mumbai on Friday, Pawar played like an ace cricketer, mixing defence with aggression. “I am very much a part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA),” he said.
Pawar said he would be visiting Bhubaneswar on April 6 and 7 as the NCP has fielded eight candidates for the Orissa assembly and one for the Lok Sabha in the state. “We have an electoral adjustment with the BJD,” he said.
Pawar denied buckling under pressure from the Congress. “Why should the Congress tell me to attend this or that rally?” he said. “I don’t need to learn politics from others. I am guided by my party.”
Officially, the Congress maintained that Pawar’s decision was his own. “It is not a question of being happy or unhappy that Sharad Pawar did not attend the rally, it is a fact that he did not,” said Union minister Kapil Sibal. “We accept Sharad Pawar’s word that he is still a partner in the UPA. That is good enough for us.”
A political manager of Pawar said, “The rally would have been an anti-Congress platform. Pawar was wondering how he could publicly endorse such a campaign when he has entered into a poll alliance for 48 seats in Maharashtra. Also, the alliance government is ruling the state.”
Pawar has been eyeing the prime minister’s post for long and probably reckons this is his last chance to make a pitch for it. He has been “caught” flirting with the Shiv Sena, almost jeopardising that party’s long-standing relationship with the BJP. The Sena nearly got swayed into rooting for a “a Marathi PM” but finally reconciled with the BJP, and Pawar came back to the Congress.
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