NEW DELHI: She is proud to be her father’s daughter but not one to give in to hype. “I respect the sentiments of those who want my father to be prime minister but we have to be practical,” says Supriya Sule, daughter of Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.
She also said her party “has full faith” in Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “We just don’t have the numbers,” said Sule in a telephone interview from Baramati, one of the most developed districts in western Maharashtra and better known as the pocket borough of Pawar. Sule is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Baramati.
Even though Pawar is one of the state’s best-known politicians, Sule said: “We have done the politics of reality and practicality. We are contesting 22 seats in Maharashtra and maybe 35-40 seats in other states like Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.
“We don’t have the numbers now. We are now focused on winning the maximum number of seats for our party and our allies,” said Sule. “We are not opening or closing any doors. Our focus is quite clear: We want the party to grow and we want the party to have an all-India presence,” she added while responding to speculation that the Third Front was reaching out to the NCP and the possibility of Pawar becoming prime minister after the 15th Lok Sabha elections.
