Sharad Pawar rules out Third Front at Centre

    Nasik (Maharashtra): Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, has ruled out the formation of a Third Front at the Centre. Pawar, who is here to attend the NCP convention, said there was no space for a Third Front in the polity. "My party's strength in the Lok Sabha is nine. How can I hope to create a miracle on this basis?" he told newspersons. "I think in this country, there will be only two major formations, those led by the Congress and the BJP," he added.

   Pawar also denied his association in any "pressure group" within the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government. On the idea of a pressure group being floated by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, Pawar said he had met Rao but no such proposal was discussed. Pawar said that he had visited his (Rao's) residence recently after he suffered a fracture in the leg, when he suggested that we should first discuss the issue of formation of a separate Telangana state with other constituents of the UPA. On the question of reservations in the private sector, Pawar said that he was expecting the opinion of Attorney General on the issue within a week, after which a report would be submitted to the Cabinet. Pawar who heads the Group of Ministers on reservations in the private sector said, "We have so far held six meetings on the issue. We have sought opinion of the Attorney General as we want any measure to be taken by government to pass legal and constitutional tests". Pawar went on to say that the objective behind government's initiative to study feasibility of quotas in the private sector was to provide jobs to neglected sections of society.

  The NCP chief, however, declined to comment on his party's stand on the issue, saying it would be improper for him to comment since he was heading the panel on private sector quotas. The panel was set up in August 2004. It includes Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran and Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Meira Kumar. On the concluding day of the two-day open convention of Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) State Unit today adopted the political resolutions of the party. Among other resolutions adopted in the convention the resolution that NCP would contest elections to the local self-government bodies in the State on its own figures in the list of resolutions, party sources said, adding that this decision to contest elections independently was being made despite NCP's tie- up with the Congress Party. NCP is an ally of the Congress at the Centre and in Maharashtra as well. The convention was held in the backdrop of the party's electoral success in recent local body elections in Maharashtra.

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