MUMBAI, 17 April 2008 — Maharastra-based Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) distanced itself from the statement made by its leader and Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel that the party had no problem in extending support to Sonia Gandhi or her son Rahul Gandhi for prime ministership, if Congress party nominates them.
Gurnath Kulkarni, the NCP spokesman, said that the statement was the personal opinion of Patel and reminded that the NCP was formed by Sharad Pawar solely on the issue that a person of foreign origin cannot be a prime minister, a reference to Sonia, who is of Italian origin. Some NCP senior leaders said that by making such “irresponsible” statements without seeking the party’s clearance, Patel was weakening the position of the party.
The NCP had only joined the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government because Manmohan Singh was made the prime minister instead of Sonia, a senior NCP minister in Maharashtra said.
According to NCP sources, Patel had not sought the concurrence of NCP chief Pawar prior to making his statement. The NCP has always maintained that Pawar is their prime ministerial candidate if the UPA alliance comes to power again.
However, Patel’s supporters justified his statement and said he had only made a realistic assessment of the political situation prevailing in the country. Patel’s statement, his supporters said was in line with Pawar’s own statement in which he had unambiguously declared that he will not contest parliamentary elections in future and that his only child Supriya Sule, a Rajya Sabha (upper house) member and his successor, would contest the next parliamentary election in his place.
It is now clear that Pawar is visualizing a national role for his daughter and he may even make effective changes in the state unit of the NCP and may put either his nephew Ajit Pawar, presently a Cabinet minister in the Congress-NCP led government in Maharashtra or pass the mantle on to his most trusted aide in Maharashtra, the deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil, said a NCP minister.
