Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda has already said CM Chandrababu Naidu has the merit to become the next prime minister of India. Now, Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar has also hinted that Naidu is a better alternative than Rahul Gandhi for the prime ministerial nomination. He said that the other choices for non-BJP parties are West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and BSP leader Mayawati.

Pawar has ruled himself out of the prime ministerial race a long time back. His main objective in this election is to see and ensure the ousting of PM Modi. His confidence is that there are no major divisions among the non-NDA parties. Mamata has expressed her aspiration for PM post while Mayawati and Naidu have conveyed their resolve to prevent Modi from retaining the post.

Pawar is considered as one of the potential king-makers who would play a crucial role in the formation of a non-BJP government formation at the Centre. The anti-Modi political parties are confident that they will be able to bring together a strong alliance after the elections to stake a claim for government formation. Pawar, Deve Gowda and other leaders have acknowledged the big role played by Naidu in turning voter opinion across the country against Modi with his attacks on IT raids and EVMs.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar made sensational comments on former AICC chief Sonia Gandhi. While most of the Congress men and party workers claim Sonia Gandhi never aspired for government posts and in fact she sacrificed PM post in 2004, Sharad Pawar’s statements give a completely different picture.

Sharad Pawar revealed in a recent interview that he quit Congress in 1999 because the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had staked her claim to the post of Prime Minister after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government collapsed. He added,only Manmohan Singh or I was the right claimant to that post of Prime Minister at that time. I was at home when I came to know that Sonia had staked claim to form the government. That was the moment I decided to quit Congress. Pawar, however, praised Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his willingness to learn, travel and interact with the people. He also remarked that only Congress could be an alternative to the BJP.

No matter how he putsit, people who followed the politics during that period know, Sharad wanted to become PM of India and started separate party NCP to achieve that post through one coalition government or other. However, his comments on Sonia already gone viral and debated a lot in political circles.