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Sharad Pawar's response on PM race as Nitish Kumar, Kharge meet over ‘Opposition unity’
Sharad Pawar asserted the Opposition wanted a leadership that would work for the betterment of the country.
Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party chief, on Monday said he was not in the race to become prime minister and asserted the Opposition wanted a leadership ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election that would work for the betterment of the country.
Pawar expressed the possibility that opposition parties, in the event of uniting, could encounter the challenge of presenting an individual as their candidate for the prime minister post.
“My efforts are for bringing the Opposition together. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is making the same efforts. I am not contesting the next election, so where is the question of becoming a PM candidate? I am not in the race to become the PM. We want a leadership who can work for the nation's development,” Pawar told reporters.
Speaking on seat sharing with the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT), which are part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the NCP chief said, "Recently, a meeting was held at my residence. Leaders from Maha Vikas Aghadi will decide on it."
"Uddhav Thackeray, Sonia Gandhi or Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and I will sit together to discuss more about it," he said on seat-sharing.
The tenure of several civic bodies in Maharashtra got over early 2022 but polls were not held due to the coronavirus pandemic. The assembly election will be held in the latter part of 2024 in Maharashtra, some months after the Lok Sabha elections likely to take place around May.
Earlier on Monday, Nitish Kumar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi after which the leaders announced that a “vast majority” of non-BJP parties will meet to give a concrete shape to Opposition unity to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
While Kumar had last month hinted that an Opposition meeting to strengthen unity could take place in Patna, there seems to be some re-think on the place with the leaders on Monday stating that a decision on it would be taken in a day or two.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
