Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 13, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/168984/Voters-confused-as-Pawar-plays-double-game.html
People in Orissa appear to be confused over
the double game Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar is playing in the elections.
He neither wants to lose the support of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi nor the
support of BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik. He wants to take both of them in the
same boat and lends his weight behind one of them who comes out with flying
colours in the election.
On April 8, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
supremo Pawar shared the dais with Naveen Patnaik, CPI(M) Politburo member
Sitaram Yechury, and senior CPI leader Abani Baral at Naveen Niwas. He even
backed Naveen and described him as honest, successful and deserved to lead
the State for the third consecutive time. In return, Naveen went on bashing
the Congress- led UPA for neglecting the cause of the Orissa for the last
several years in which NCP is an alliance partner.
Significantly, in the next 48 hours on April
10, Pawar was seen hobnobbing with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in one
of the election meetings at Vidharba in Maharashtra. In that meeting, Pawar
also made it clear that he had no plan to tie up with the Left. Pawar even
went ahead in heaping praises on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
