_.jpg?w=801&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max&format=webp&dpr=1.0)
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday pitched his formula on which party should stake claim to the Prime Minister's post in 2019 saying that the decision can be taken once election results are out.
“Let elections take place, remove these people (BJP) from power. We will sit together. Whichever party has got more seats can claim the prime minister’s post,” Pawar said. “I am happy that the Congress leader (Rahul Gandhi) has also said he is not in the race for the prime minister’s post,” The NCP chief added.
Later while talking to the reporters Pawar said, "BJP is asking us who will be the Opposition's PM candidate. They should not bother about an option to Modi. People will answer this question in the election."
Advertisement
He recalled that there was no PM face against Indira Gandhi in 1977, after the Emergency but all small parties got united and Morarji Desai became the PM.
Pawar also pressed for forging alliances of anti-BJP parties at state level and favoured picking up the prime ministerial candidate after the election results, as happened
after the 1977 and 2004 general polls.
Raising concerns over the alleged instances of EVM tampering, Pawar asked the Election Commission to revert to using ballot papers during polling.
Pawar's remarks comes a day after the Congress president said he was not driven by an ambition to become prime minister.
Advertisement
While addressing the Indian Journalists’ Association in London on Saturday, Gandhi said he was not driven by an ambition to become prime minister, contravening his own remarks earlier this year.
“I don’t have these visions. I view myself as fighting an ideological battle and this change has come in me after 2014. I realised that there’s a risk to Indian state, to the Indian way of doing things and I’m defending that,” Gandhi had said.
(Agencies)
