Ajit Pawar: MNS should be made a part of Opposition’s Grand Alliance
MUMBAI:SENIOR Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Tuesday suggested that the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman should be made a part of the Grand Alliance of opposition parties for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
However, NCP president Sharad Pawar had said that his party will not forge any alliance with MNS.
This move will help them avoid division of votes against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Pawar said adding that this is his personal opinion. “MNS candidates had obtained over one lakh votes in many constituencies in the general polls held in 2014. This needs to be considered if we want to avoid such division of votes. Our national president and Congress party has already expressed different views over MNS but in my personal opinion, if we have to defeat BJP then all like-minded parties should be brought together,” Pawar told a Marathi news channel.
To back his views, Pawar gave examples of Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati. Once all these leaders had supported BJP and where they are now, he asked.
Congress and NCP have declared a pre-poll alliance and are also jointly working on to bring other like-minded parties on board to form a mega alliance against BJP and Shiv Sena.