Cong flouted alliance rules: Sharad Pawar

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who stirred hornet’s nest a couple of days ago by taking exception to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s comments about allies making decision-making difficult, calling it unnecessary and sweeping in nature stepped up his pressure on the State unit of Congress saying it was the Congress which did not follow the coalition dharma in the Zilla Parishad president elections.

Pawar said this addressing a meeting of newly elected NCP corporators during his Pune visit yesterday.

Pawar said, “The NCP is being accused of not following the coalition dharma during the elections for Zilla Parishad presidents. However, it was the Congress which began defying the coalition dharma. Under such circumstances, the question arises whether only the NCP is to observe discipline.”
Pawar warned, “We want to remain in alliance with Congress. However, if the Congress continues its opposition to NCP, we would not tolerate it.”

He said, “During the Zilla Parishad polls, NCP and Congress had pre-poll alliances at some places and at some places the two parties contested the elections separately. After the elections, the two parties decided to support each other. It was decided that if a party had a majority at a place, it would hold the key positions and at places where either party would not have majority, the key positions would be shared.”

He added the Congress went against the mutual agreement in Kolhapur. “There an alliance was needed to reach the magic figure but the Congress decided not to go with us.”