New Delhi: 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.
Requesting all opposition parties to unite forces to vote out BJP from the power, Pawar asked them to aim towards getting maximum seats in the 2019 general assembly elections. He stated that he was happy that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that he was not driven by prime ministerial ambitions.
"I am happy that the Congress leader (Rahul Gandhi) has also said he is not in the race for the prime minister's post. Let elections take place, remove these people (BJP) from power. We will sit together and whichever party gets the maximum seats can claim the prime minister's post," he said.
The NCP veteran pressed for forging alliances of all anti-BJP parties at the state level and favoured picking up the prime ministerial candidate after the election results. He even recalled how parties came together in a post-poll arrangement to dislodge incumbent parties from power in 1977 and later in 2004 when Congress-led UPA was formed after elections against Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA.
In 1977, Congress tasted defeat and all non-Congress parties came together to form a government led by Moraraji Desai. in 2004, a Congress-led UPA was formed after elections against the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA.
Pawar also raised concerns over allegations of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and asked the Election Commission to revert to ballot paper voting.
Pawar's remarks come a day after Rahul stated that he was not driven by an ambition to become prime minister. "I don't have these visions. I view myself as fighting an ideological battle and this change has come to me after 2014. I realized that there's a risk to Indian state, to the Indian way of doing things and I'm defending that," he said.
