Friday, 17 January 2014

Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Saturday that he would be very happy to see Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar become prime minister of India, surprising remarks from a Congress loyalist that are certain to invite censure from supporters of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

"Pawar is the tallest leader of Maharashtra and I would be very happy to see him become prime minister in the future," he said at a private function in his constituency Sholapur.

 "Pawar has been in politics for over 40 years. He was very close to becoming the prime minister in 1992 (Shinde may have meant 1991 when PV Narasimha Rao became PM). A lot of people don't know all the details of what happened. It would not be right to say all the things from a public platform but Pawar could not become prime minister because of politics in Delhi."

Pawar and Shinde are known to share great rapport. Shinde first held the finance and then the home portfolio in the state government under Pawar. When Pawar became chief minister in 1988, Shinde was the first to be inducted in his cabinet. Shinde also supported Pawar during the revolt by MLAs against him in 1991. But the NCP said Pawar was not in the race for the prime minister's post.

Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said, "We are grateful for Shinde's comment that our leader has the capability to be a good PM. But we want to clarify that Sharad Pawar is not in PM's race." Shinde's remarks come as there is a growing clamour in the Congress to name Rahul Gandhi as prime ministerial candidate and make the approaching general elections a direct contest between Gandhi and BJP's Narendra Modi.

Shinde started his career as a police sub inspector and later took up legal practice when he met Pawar and decided to join the Congress.

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