By Neerja Chowdhury,IANS,
New Delhi : Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has inted at the possibility of reviewing his decision to stand for the Lok Sabha next year but from a constituency other than Baramati in Maharashtra.
Some time ago, Pawar had announced that he would not be contesting from Baramati, from where his Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is expected to field his daughter Supriya Sule.
“I don’t want to come into the Lok Sabha (again),” Pawar said. “I will complete 43 years in parliament and I have fought 14 elections. But there is pressure from my party to stand from elsewhere. They have suggested other constituencies.”
Pawar, whose party has officially started negotiations with the Congress on a seat sharing formula for the coming Lok Sabha polls, made a case for a pre-poll arrangement to ensure that the secular vote does not split.
The NCP has sought a 50:50 division of Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
“What we have mooted is what I had suggested when Sitaram Kesri was the Congress president and that was to take along all like-minded parties and contest collectively. At the time we won 42 out of 48 seats (in Maharashtra),” Pawar said.
“I feel we should follow the same route today. There should be no division of the secular votes. But first we should accommodate the smaller secular parties and then divide the remaining seats between us.”