Goa result does not reflect foreign origin8217; issue: NCP

MUMBAI, JUNE 8: Nationalist Congress Party NCP leader Sharad Pawar and general secretary P A Sangma declared that the Goa Assembly election was not a referendum on the issue they had raised in the Congress 8212; that of a person of foreign origin holding high office in India. 8220;Our issue was not relevant in the Goa polls at all8230; Goa people were electing a Chief Minister, not the Prime Minister of the country,8221; Pawar and Sangma said here today.

In Mumbai for the all-important national convention of the NCP, both leaders expectedly dismissed Congress president Sonia Gandhi8217;s contribution in the election result that gave the Congress a majority in the 40-member Assembly. 8220;Any credit for the good show should be collective,8221; said Pawar, 8220;since we were all together while finalising the strategy and selecting candidates for the Assembly election.8221;

The NCP was not in the field but there are a few elected members of the Legislative Assembly who share an affinity with Pawar. Asked about the possibility oftheir joining the NCP now, Pawar merely said, 8220;Wait and watch8221;. Both he and Sangma refused to accept that their stand on a person of foreign origin had not washed with the Goa voters; they do not see the Goa result as a failure to reach out. 8220;We were not there at all,8221; they said.