Key UPA ally and NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday asked the Congress to take a call on its Prime Ministerial candidate even as he said there was the possibility of early polls following DMK’s pullout.
Pawar added to the early polls buzz just about a fortnight after Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav also spoke about the likelihood of the general elections being held towards the end of this year, instead of May 2014.
On the contentious question as to who will lead the UPA in the lok Sabha polls, Pawar, who was talking informally to mediapersons at Thane, said that the Congress being the spearhead of the ruling coalition, would have to take the call, “Compared to last time, UPA has shrunk. It is only the Congress, NCP and National Conference...The majority party has to take the call. We will respect the majority party’s view,” Pawar said.
The NCP chief maintained that the lok Sabha polls were “very much round the corner” and minced no words in pointing out that the Government at the Centre was “vulnerable” after the DMK pulled out of the UPA dispensation.
“Elections are round the corner. Whether you like it or not - as on today, when the DMK has taken the decision (of quitting the Government), our position is little vulnerable in Parliament. So we have to be ready to go for polls any day, I do not say that we will go to polls immediately. If that situation happens, we have to be ready (for early elections),” Pawar said.
“In such a situation (where elections will have to be advanced), I think we (UPA leadership) all have to sit together and prepare a plan for tomorrow. And for that I am going to request UPA chairperson (Sonia Gandhi) to call a meeting of the ruling coalition partners. In fact, she herself has suggested that she will be calling such a meeting. At that meeting, we will sit together and finalise the issues,” the NCP chief said.
Pawar’s realistic comment that the UPA dispensation has become “vulnerable” after the DMK’s exit should be seen in the light of the fact that the Government is currently being supported by the Samajwadi Party with 22 MPs and BSP with 21 MPs are providing crucial support to it from outside. Both SP and BSP are not historically known to be reliable allies of any Government.
Pawar’s prediction of an early election comes two weeks after the SP chief claimed that he had “inside information” that the lok Sabha elections would be held in November this year and exhorting his party workers present a rally held in lucknow to prepare themselves for early polls.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, later ruled out the possibility of early elections, affirming his Government was stable and would complete its full term.
When his attention was drawn to a claim by former BJP president Nitin Gadkari that a UPA leader approached him for help to bring down the UPA Government, Pawar quipped: “NCP has only 9 MPs and UPA Government cannot be toppled with nine MPs pulling out.”
A mediaperson posed the question in the light of media reports which suggested that Gadkari, who has chosen not to name the UPA ally in question, had turned the needle of suspicion on Pawar in view of the fact that the senior BJP leader and NCP chief enjoy good personal relations.