Sharad Pawar’s way of choosing prime minister – A formula to keep anti-BJP front hopes alive

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who, along with Mamata Banerjee, is making all-out efforts to stitch an anti-BJP alliance for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, has suggested a solution to the spiky issue of Opposition’s prime ministerial candidate.

Addressing party leaders at a meeting in Mumbai, Pawar on Monday said that first let the elections happen and the issues of prime ministership can be resolved easily – let the party getting more seats claim the top post.

"Let elections take place, remove these people (BJP) from power. We will sit together. Whichever party has got more seats can claim the prime minister's post," Pawar said.

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The 78-year-old NCP leader also expressed his happiness over Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s remark that he was not too eager for the PM post and will rather fight the ideological battle with the BJP.

"I am happy that the Congress leader (Rahul Gandhi) has also said he is not in the race for the prime minister's post," the NCP chief added.

On Sunday, the Congress president had said that he didn’t have prime minister’s post in his mind and he was only defending the Indian state from “divisive” forces.

"I don't have these visions. I view myself as fighting an ideological battle and this change has come in me after 2014. I realised that there's a risk to Indian state, to Indian way of doing things and I'm defending that," the Gandhi scion had said.

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The Opposition parties led by the likes of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, BSP Supremo Mayawati and SP’s leader Akhilesh Yadav are trying to form a grand-alliance to take on the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

However, the question – who will be the Opposition’s face for the prime minister's post – has kept the formation of the anti-BJP front in disdain.

While Banerjee and Mayawati have expressed their wish to play a bigger role, the Congress party has remained low-profile with the Congress president even willing to sacrifice the post for a woman candidate to keep the possibilities of an anti-BJP alliance alive.