At 81, Pawar takes on the task of uniting Opposition
MUMBAI: As he turns 81 on Sunday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar is busy preparing to unite opposition parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next general elections. His close aides say the Maratha strongman is willing to take an initiative in bringing opposition parties together and even play the role of a mediator between the Congress and Trinamool Congress, provided he is given a prominent role by the opposition parties for these efforts.
In its national executive meeting held at New Delhi on December 7, the NCP called for the creation of an anti-bjp Opposition front in the country based on the principle of “collective leadership.”
In her visit to Mumbai, while Pawar stood next to her, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee, said there was no United Progressive Alliance (UPA) left in the country and pitched for unifying opposition parties to take on the BJP. Pawar, however, maintained that the intention was not to keep the Congress away but to unify everyone in an “anti-bjp front”.
Pawar’s close aides in the party as well as ally Shiv Sena would like him to head the Opposition front though Congress, which is traditionally the fulcrum of such efforts, is unlikely to accept this.
Meanwhile, at a book release function on Saturday, the NCP chief also attacked the BJP for rewriting textbooks to influence students. Pawar said that based on the prevailing situation, it seemed that “a systematic, wellplanned policy had been drawn up and was being implemented” to change academic texts and influence the thinking of young minds.