ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

20 Independent MLAs want to return to Congress, claims Pawar

Sharad Pawar, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has said 20 of the 40 Independent legislators supporting the Manohar Joshi government in Maharashtra have so far expressed their desire to return to the Congress party.

Speaking at a meet-the-press programme organised by the Nagpur Union of Working Journalists over the weekend, Pawar said the party had initiated the process of ascertaining the views of party activists in the respective districts on the re-entry of these MLAs into the party.

Pawar clarified that the Congress was not interested in toppling the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state. In an indirect reference to infighting in the Sena in the wake of its reverses in the Lok Sabha poll, he said he sympathised with Chief Minister Joshi who had become a suspect in the eyes of Sena chief Bal Thackeray due to his alleged friendship with him (Pawar). But Joshi was capable of taking care of himself, he added.

He said the Congress would prefer to face a mid-term assembly poll than resort to a toppling game.

About his stand on statehood for Vidharba region, Pawar said the BJP unit in Maharashtra had incorporated this demand into its election manifesto and it was the BJP which should make a move first in the matter. His party would react to it, taking the views of the people in Vidharba into consideration.

He said the Congress MPs from Vidharba had met party president Sonia Gandhi to secure her support for a separate Vidharba state. There would be further consultations, but the party was in favour of small but viable states, he remarked.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report