MUMBAI: Amid Congress humiliation in the recent elections and nagging questions about its ability to lead the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) any longer, the NCP is aggressively pushing the candidature of its patriarch Sharad Pawar as the head of the front. The process gathered steam with Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday saying Pawar has the ability to bring all non-BJP parties together ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
At present, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is the UPA chairperson. The head of the grouping would automatically be its prime ministerial candidate, though Sonia gave it up in favour of Manmohan Singh.
The NCP’s youth wing had in a recent meeting in Delhi adopted a resolution to make Sharad Pawar the chairperson of the UPA. The resolution significantly was passed in the presence of Pawar.
NCP youth wing president Dhiraj Sharma said, “It is the right time to make Pawar the UPA head. The Congress is weak.... There are many anti-BJP parties that do not want to work under Congress leadership.”