New Delhi: NCP Chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said that his party will continue to support the coalition government in Maharashtra amid the crisis led by the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who are camping in a hotel in Guwahati for the last several days.
Addressing media at his residence in New Delhi, Pawar said that he was in the capital to join Yashwant Sinha for his nomination on Monday for the Presidential election. "We are clear that we are going to completely support our coalition government," he said. On rebel MLAs, Pawar said: "They claim that they have numbers. But if they have adequate numbers then why are they not coming back?"
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Asked about rebel MLAs blaming NCP-Congress for the current crisis, the NCP chief said that Eknath Shinde (the Shiv Sena MLA who leads the rebellion) and other rebel MLAs were in coalition with NCP-Congress for the last 2.5 years. "Now, it is just an excuse that they don't want to be in alliance with NCP," he said.
Pawar said that the coalition leaders will go to the deputy speaker on Monday or Tuesday to take action against the rebel group. "Whether any action (on party level) would be taken against these rebel MLAs or not, that will be decided by Uddhav Thackrey," he said.
'Our duty to make every effort to ensure Sinha's win'
Meanwhile speaking on the presidential polls, Pawar said the opposition parties will have to make every effort to ensure the victory of Yashwant Sinha, their common candidate, in the presidential election. Pawar said if one looked at the arithmetic for the presidential election, the situation was not as bad as it was made out to be, and the opposition parties will have to make concerted efforts to put up a good fight.
The NCP chief's remarks come at a time when some opposition parties such as YSRCP and BSP have already declared support for Droupadi Murmu, the BJP-led NDA nominee in the July 18 election. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which was part of the opposition grouping that selected Sinha as their common candidate, was veering towards Murmu, a tribal leader of Odisha from the Santhal community.
"When we contest an election, we contest to win. When there are two candidates, both cannot win. The situation is different for each candidate. This contest is about principles. We have selected Yashwant Sinha as our common candidate and it is our responsibility to make every effort to ensure his victory. Whatever be the result, we can talk about it later," Pawar said.
"Should we not contest elections if the numbers are stacked against us," Pawar shot back to questions on Murmu better poised to win the July 18 elections. The NCP chief said it was the duty of the political parties to contest elections be it Lok Sabha or Assembly on the basis of the principles it believed in. "We have entered the fray keeping this in mind," Pawar said.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and a host of opposition leaders are likely to be present in Parliament House on Monday when Sinha will submit his nomination papers for the presidential election.
