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India has rejected Sonia, says Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, while not making any direct reference to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, said the results of the election to the thirteenth Lok Sabha had proved that the country had not accepted her leadership.

Addressing the concluding session of a meeting of delegates of the NCP in Pune this evening, Pawar said the 112 seats that the Congress had won under Gandhi's leadership this time was the party's worst electoral performance ever.

Even in 1977, when Indira Gandhi lost the election after the Emergency, the party had performed much better, as also under Sitaram Kesri's leadership in 1998, he said.

But this time, even in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, where the Congress had won the assembly elections held in November last year, the party's performance was miserable in the Lok Sabha election, he noted.

Similarly, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is heading the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre, had been unable to improve its performance, winning just one seat more than it had in the twelfth Lok Sabha, Pawar said.

On the other hand, the NCP's performance, he claimed, had been creditable, with the party participating to the extent of at least 50 per cent in the governments in Maharashtra and Meghalaya despite being just two months old during the election and getting its symbol allotted very late.

The symbol did play a role in the defeat of many candidates who lost by margins between 750 and 2,000 votes because of a large number of invalid votes caused by confusion, the former Union defence minister claimed.

Pawar said that while the Janata Dal, which had given the country three prime ministers, had lost its recognition as a national party, the NCP is all set to become a national party, having fulfilled the criteria for recognition by the Election Commission.

Having been forced to share power with the Congress in Maharashtra after the voters gave a hung mandate, Pawar called upon the state leadership to build the NCP with a different identity so that it grows in strength.

He also called upon the delegates to ponder over a flag that could reach the masses.

Building the party is a big challenge, Pawar said, and underlined the need to concentrate on the youth who constitute more than 60 per cent of the electorate, the women and the industrial workforce, including in the unorganised sector.

Referring to the state of Maharashtra, where about 40 per cent of the voters are in the cities and the number may soon grow to 50 per cent, more attention needs to be given in urban areas, the former chief minister said.

On the Democratic Front government in the state, Pawar said it should be stable and the general masses should get the feeling of a qualitative change.

Stating that the state's financial health is not good, he said it would be difficult to satisfy everyone and do all the work necessary, but the NCP ministers should ensure that they do not antagonise party workers from the rural hinterland. "If you cannot do their work, at least be courteous to them and treat them with respect," he said.

UNI

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