IANS/Mumbai
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray yesterday said the Nationalist Congress Party cannot join the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) now or after the Lok Sabh election.
Thackeray said NCP chief Sharad Pawar likes to keep all his options open “and will change course” once the election results are out.
“He seems to be veering towards joining the NDA,” Thackeray told his party journal Saamana.
“But Gopinath Munde, Ramdas Athawale, Raju Shetty, myself and others strongly objected, so his dream was shattered before the election itself,” Thackeray said.
Thackeray expressed confidence that in the post-election scenario, the NDA would not need support from any other party, especially the NCP, to form a government.
“Even if required, it will not be possible to take NCP’s support as it is facing the ire of the masses. It will be a betrayal of the electorate...
“The masses are agitated against the current government of which NCP is a part. Even Sharad Pawar is the target of public ire...”
In other developments, the Aam Aadmi Party announced it was fielding Bollywood actor Jaaved Jaaferi against BJP president Rajnath Singh from Lucknow.
It also said Thamil Arima will be the candidate contesting against Finance Minister P.Chidambaram’s son Karti P Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu’s Sivganga constituency.
In New DelhiCongress leader Raashid Alvi urged party president Sonia Gandhi to allow him to contest from Varanasi against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
A former MP, Alvi said: “Banaras (Varanasi) is a very secular city, and I am sure people there will support me.”
Alvi described AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, who is in the fray from Varanasi, as the “B team of the BJP.”
“I am sure the people of Varanasi will support me,” said Alvi, a former Congress spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Bollywood actress Kirron Kher, known for her sophisticated and ornate taste in expensive saris and jewellery, disregarded the advice that she must dress simply during her rallies as a BJP candidate from Chandigarh.
She said she she doesn’t need to “act” like a politician and that she’d rather be “real” to win votes.
An anonymous person made the suggestion to her.
“Yesterday someone said that I should wear simple clothes during rallies. But I don’t want to do the acting of a politician. I want to be real,” the 58-year-old posted on her Twitter page.
Kirron, wife of actor Anupam Kher, wore a sari simpler than her usual taste when she filed her nomination papers earlier this month.
In Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that her Trinamool Congress will control the new central government and asserted that her regime would leverage the strength to ensure the state was not deprived of central funds.
“Trinamool will control the government in Delhi. We won’t allow it to deprive Bengal of funds. The Centre has taken away Rs86,000 crore from Bengal. They are depriving us of funds to stop development,” the Trinamool supremo said at an election rally.
In Nabarangpur, Odisha, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi accused the government of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of diverting money sent by the central government for the welfare of tribespeople.
Gandhi said the Congress-led government had ensured that the farmers get proper remuneration for their land acquired for development projects.
He said, however, that money under tribal sub-plan was being diverted in Odisha.
“Money is sent under tribal sub-plan. They (Odisha government) divert it” for using for other purposes, Gandhi said.
He also accused the NDA of not “talking about the welfare of the poor and tribals.”
“They do not speak about the welfare of the poor, the tribals,” Gandhi said.
