Open for deal with JDU-RJD grouping if given more seats: Pawar

NCP is open for a tie-up with the secular alliance in Bihar if his party is offered a better deal, its chief Sharad Pawar said today.

“If parties with two Lok Sabha MPs have been given 40 seats, then we could also be offered more number of seats”, Pawar told PTI when asked whether his party is still open for a tie-up in Bihar to avoid division of anti-BJPvotes.

While the Congress and JD-U have got only two Lok Sabha members each in Bihar, RJD has four. The NCP has one MP.

RJD and JD-U, which are the dominant parties in the alliance, have taken 100 seats each, giving 40 to Congress. NCP was offered only only three seats after which it parted ways and is planning to fight the polls along with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, which has also been given a short shrift by the “grand alliance”.

On the issue of deadlock in Parliament, Pawar insisted that it was the duty of the government to initiate a dialogue with the opposition.

“Parliamentary democracy cannot run if there is no dialogue. Government has to take the lead”, he said suggesting that those in power should not shun talking to the rival side.

Pawar, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday over the serious drought situation in Maharashtra, said that he followed it up by having a meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today.

He said that he stressed on the need for urgent measures from the Centre to tackle the situation in the state to cope with severe water and fodder shortages in parts of Marathwada and Western Maharashtra.

Besides calling for tackling the problem of drinking water in the scarcity-hit areas, he wanted more cattle camps to be set up as also making work available in the countryside through the MGNREGA.

The former Agriculture Minister wanted farmers to be compensated for loss of kharif crops and horticultural produce.

He also sought waiver of crop loans or their restructuring, stopping of recovery of all types of dues from the dought-hit and raising the minimum support price of milk.

The Centre would make earnest efforts to step up exports of sugar, Pawar said after talks with the Prime Minister as also the Finance Minister on the crisis in the sugar industry. He said he pitched for export of at least 40 lakh tonnes of sugar.

Courtesy: PTI