Sharad Pawar must take lead in merging smaller parties with Congress: Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday said NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar should take a lead in merging the smaller parties, which came into existence after splitting away from the Congress, back with the Grand Old Party. 

There are leaders who were part of the Congress and Congress-led Governments, and they still espouse the same ideology, he said. “If this (Congress) ideology comes together, then it will pose a big challenge to (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi.

Pawar should take an initiative regarding this,” the Rajya Sabha member told reporters. His remarks come amid a buzz about possible merger of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) with the Congress. 

Raut asserted that Congress has to be strong, and leaders of smaller parties that emerged from it must understand the situation. On Wednesday, Raut had suggested that parties like the TMC and NCP (SP), formed after their leaders quit the Congress, should return to the fold of the Grand Old Party so as to create a strong alternative to the BJP.