Mumbai, June 22: NCP Working President Praful Patel has said that Sharad Pawar was sidelined by a Congress team to prevent him from becoming Prime Minister and Congress President.
Congress gatherings…Congress courts are doing this time and again. Patel made the statement in the presence of NCP president Pawar, 82, his nephew Ajit Pawar, leader of the opposition in Maharashtra, and Baramati MP daughter Supriya Sule, who is also the party’s working president.
NCP was established on June 10, 1999. Then Sharad Pawar along with PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar questioned Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin issue. He was later expelled from the party.
Former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel addressed the gathering on December 12, 2020, Sharad Pawar’s 80th birthday. Patel said that he had written a note on the matter in the form of an advertisement published in various newspapers in English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati languages.
Patel, a close confidant of Sharad Pawar, in his maiden speech as the working president, cited a series of two incidents in 1991 and 1996 to explain how Pawar lost his chance to become prime minister.
Referring to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the 1999 elections, the prime ministerial candidate should be a young, active person like Pawar. Many in the party felt that he should have a better grip. However, the Congress party decided to appoint PV Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister.
In the 1996 episode, he was of the opinion that Pawar Saheb should become the Congress President, and the party was at it again. He prevented Congress from becoming president. Narasimha Rao had proposed Sitaram Kesri’s name to take over. Patel said Pawar was humiliated when he was the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
