No third front without Congress, says Sharad Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said an opposition front cannot be formed without the Congress. He also said people want an alternative and it is the responsibility of the political leadership to fulfil their expectations.

The statement assumes significance in the backdrop of a meeting of leaders from many political parties and civil society members organised by Yashwant Sinha-led Rashtra Manch at Pawar’s Delhi residence early this week. There are speculations that the exercise was to assess possibility of a third front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“We haven’t met over forming a third front but I am of the view that it can be only with the Congress as part of it. I also believe that a third (opposition) front is necessary and I have also expressed the same,” Pawar said in response to a question related to the meeting at his Delhi residence.

He was interacting with reporters in Pune.

“People want an alternative and the responsibility of fulfilling their expectation is on the political leadership,” he remarked in a response to a question.

Pawar clarified that he has no plans on leading such a front but would work to help formulate it. “I was involved in such activities for many years. Now it’s enough. I will be working to help them, guide them, strengthen them and keep them united,” he said when asked if he would be leading a third front.

He also said that the meeting was called to discuss a white paper over resolving farmers issues created after enactment of three contentious legislations. The white paper will be a road map on how to fix the matter as farmers have been agitating at Delhi borders for over six months.

The NCP supremo also said it is the right of the Congress to work on strengthening the organisation. He made the statement in response to state Congress chief Nana Patole’s remarks over contesting the upcoming polls alone. “Every party has the right to strengthen its organisation, be it any. We have no complaints as we all say so to boost morale of party cadres. We will welcome it if the Congress is making such efforts. It is their right,” the veteran leader said.

Earlier this week, Patole had said his party would fight all the forthcoming elections alone and that the Congress would be the single-largest party in 2024 Assembly polls. This led to friction among the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) as chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was upset with the remarks.

Addressing Shiv Sena’s 55th foundation day, Thackeray had on Saturday said, “If we do not offer solutions to people’s problems but only talk about going it alone in politics, people will beat us with footwear. They will not listen to our party-centric, ambitious talk of contesting elections alone.” Though he chose not to name anyone, the remarks were clear that he is not happy with the stand taken by the Congress state unit.