GUWAHATI: On the eve of counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections, NCP bigwig and former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma urged party chief Sharad Pawar to sever all ties with the Congress.
Addressing a meeting of all NCP units in the North-East, Sangma suggested the formation of a non- Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre headed by Pawar. The NCP strongman urged all likeminded parties to support Pawar as the prime minister.
He categorically said that the NCP should not align with the Congress, but suggested that the Congress should support Pawar for the prime minister’s post.
The former Lok Sabha Speaker claimed that Pawar has the support of Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK, Chiranjeevi of the Praja Rajyam Party in Andhra Pradesh, Navin Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal and Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena.
“The BJP is not untouchable. Nobody is untouchable,” Sangma said.
He said that the NCP units of the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir unanimously believed that the party should have nothing to do with the Congress.
The Congress should “gracefully” support a non-Congress Government led by Sharad Pawar, as they have no respect for their own Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sangma said.
“The Congress did not care for their Prime Minister’s instructions on Meghalaya when he told Ahmad Patel that the Congress and the NCP should work together in the state,” Sangma said.
He clarified that the process of negotiations over the formation of a Congress-NCP government in Meghalaya was taken at the initiation of the Prime Minister. “It was decided at the highest level by Pawar and Singh,” Sangma said.
A statement issued by the NCP units of the North-East said that the Congress could not be trusted since the party betrayed the NCP in forming the government in Meghalaya.
“We, the NCP units of the North-East, cannot trust the Congress any longer,” the statement said.
The NCP will chalk out its future strategies on May 17 when it meets at the residence of Pawar.