Senior NCP leader Praful Patel on Monday predicted that given the changing political situation in the country, his party president Sharad Pawar might become Prime Minister in 2019.
Speaking at a brain-storming session organised by his party at Karjat near here, Patel said: “I have a strong reason to believe that 2019 is going to be the year of the NCP and Sharad Pawar. Given the changing political situation, our wish will be fulfilled. Pawar may become Prime Minister in 2019. The NCP workers should start working hard to fulfill their wish of seeing Pawar as the Prime Minister”.
“Sharad Pawar is a force to reckon with in national politics. His words carry a lot of weight in Parliament. Even Prime Minister respects his view. However, there is effort to malign NCP and its leaders. I advise Pawarsaheb not to be soft towards his critics who are maligning the NCP,” the NCP leader said.
Castigating Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his failures on various fronts, Patel said: “The people have suffered a quite a bit because of demonetisation and GST. As a result, the political situation is changing in the country.
The BJP is facing an uphill task in Gujarat Assembly polls. At one point in time there was Modi wave in the country. But, the situation has changed now. While the BJP projects Gujarat as a model State, the farmers in that State are a distressed lot”.
Patel disclosed that in 1999, then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had invited Pawar to join the NDA. “Had he joined the NDA then, Pawar would have been number two in the Vajpayee Government. But, Pawar refused the invitation from Vajpayee to join the NDA, as he did not want to compromise on his ideology,” Patel said.
Maintaining the Congress was not the NCP’s political rival, Patel said, “Given the changing political situation in the country, we have to work with an open mind. The Congress is not our political rival and our relation with the Congress is “Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Gham”. Had the Congress and NCP fought the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly polls together, we would have won anywhere from 125 to 140 seats out of total 288 seats in the State. We, both the parties, expect to fight the 2019 lok Sabha and Assembly polls an alliance. Sharad Pawar feels that together, the two parties have to chalk out concrete programmes”.
Pawar will speak at the concluding session of the “Chintan Shibir” on Tuesday.