Sharad Pawar, veteran politician and the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party, said Congress President Rahul Gandhi may not be an apt choice for the post of prime minister and that there are better contenders than him such as Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu .Pawar reportedly said that the West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh chief miniters and even Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati are better choixces than Rahul for the PM post.
The statement comes at a time when the general elections are underway and the battle for the PM's post has been pegged as a direct fight between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. "All these talks about Rahul being the PM are just baseless," the 78-year-old former union minister told the Zee News. "Mamata, Maya, or Naidu are better options as the PM candidate of non-NDA parties than Congress' Rahul," he said.
Hinting at the third front formation post the Lok Sabha elections, Pawar said that the history could be repeated and that there is a likelihood of the formation of non-NDA alliance in the form of third front after the elections. Pawar could be one of the kingmakers in the post election scenario and in case of a hung parliament regional parties like NCP could play a pivotal role in the government formation.
The senior politcal leader from Maharashtra said that some allies of BJP-led NDA could also join them adter the elections and that they will have the magic numbers. "It has happened in the past too. During 2004 elections, all of us who had regional strongholds came together. We met Sonia Jee, Pranab da and formed a government that lasted 10 years.
"At Soniaji's residence, Manmohanji, Pranabji and I discussed the matter and then we spoke of getting support from many non-BJP coalition partners. We provided an alternative stable government to the country for 10 years. You cannot ignore that fact," Pawar added.
He further said that there was no dearth of good leaders in the country and that a common minimum programme will be furnished soon after the results are out. The veteral politician , however, ruled himself out of the PM race and said that coming together to defeat the BJP is the need of the hour.
