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Journalism of Courage
This time there is no room for ambiguity. Maratha strongman and NCP chief Sharad Pawar today said electoral alliance with the BJP-led NDA is an option for his party.
He, however, found his excuse in the North-east. He said some of NCP’s elected representatives from Meghalaya have suggested him to go with the NDA. ‘‘We are duty-bound to at least consider this suggestion,’’ Pawar told reporters on Friday.
The NCP chief made it clear that the question of sacrificing anybody from the party for facilitating an alliance does not arise. Bal Thackeray had said that he was not averse to including NCP in the NDA but Chhagan Bhujbal had to be expelled.
Pawar said: ‘‘Normally I do not react to Thackeray’s political statements. Whatever discussion he (Thackeray) had with (L K) Advani is an internal matter of the NDA. As far as we are concerned, the NCP has neither been contacted by anybody from the NDA nor its leaders have made any suggestion to the NDA.’’
He said the NCP would chalk out definite tactics for the Lok Sabha polls at its national executive meet in New Delhi on January 25. Joining hands with the Congress or with the Left parties and allies were the other two options, he said. Pawar said Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s recent statements in Mumbai indicated a ‘‘positive approach.’’ The NCP and the Congress were running the government in Maharashtra and there was nothing wrong in considering the alliance, he said.
However, the party cannot afford to stick to a single state while deciding alliance at the national level, he said. ‘‘This may be possible in individual states considering the conditions there but not on a country-wide basis. Whatever final decision we take will involve the NCP’s interests across the country,’’ Pawar said.
He said that in the era of coalition politics, it was not appropriate for any party to consider others (read BJP) as ‘‘untouchables’’. The way out was to look for a common agenda acceptable to all. ‘‘In case of too many differences, it is always better to keep a straight line of thinking,’’ Pawar said. But the Congress seems to be confident of working out a deal with its Maharashtra partner. The reason for the confidence is the NCP’s ‘‘very positive approach’’ towards an alliance by choosing to side-step the issue of foreign origin. Maharastra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is said to be ‘‘negotiating’’ a formula for a pre-poll alliance with the NCP, which would work both for assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
The party is now waiting for Pawar’s January-25 deadline. ‘‘Till then, we are going to go by what the NCP state president R.R. Patil had said earlier that there was no question of going with the BJP or its allies,’’ a senior Congress leader said.
