Only ambition is a united Opposition, says NCP chief Sharad Pawar Premium

The NCP patriarch calls out the BJP for damaging secularism and centralisation of power and is confident that there is a desire among all opposition to parties to come together and take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

The defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Karnataka Assembly election is part of an emerging pattern of people turning against it across the country, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has said.

Mr. Pawar, who will be attending the swearing-in of the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on May 20, told  The Hindu in an exclusive interview that the defeat of the BJP in 2024 was in the “national interest”, adding that he had no personal ambitions after being in various positions of power for over six decades.

“I have no personal ambition… My only ambition is to bring together parties and provide an alternative to the BJP,” Mr. Pawar said in a candid, exhaustive conversation that spanned the political situation in the country, the leadership of any future non-BJP formation, the Shiv Sena (UBT)-Congress relationship and his nephew Ajit Pawar’s alleged ties with the BJP.

The four-time Maharashtra Chief Minister and former Union Minister said that the BJP had “robbed other parties” to gain power in several States, and it could win through fair means only in a few such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. “There is no BJP in most parts of the country… not a single State in southern India,” he said.

Asked how he compared the current political situation in the country with that of 2003 when several Opposition parties had come together against the BJP, Mr. Pawar said: “At that time there was a leader like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a thorough gentleman and there was the slogan ‘India Shining’. There was a feeling among the Opposition that they have no future. So, a few of our colleagues said, ‘Don’t worry, we will fight and see...’ We came to power, and I myself was in government which continued for 10 years.”

According to the NCP patriarch, all differences among non-BJP parties can be sorted out once the goal of defeating the incumbent is achieved. Asked whether the Congress would lead any such alliance, Mr. Pawar said: “Whoever gets more numbers will have a legitimate claim…” He said that he was in touch with leaders across the country and planned to attend a meeting of the Opposition that is being planned in Patna.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar (82) has been in politics for over six decades and is preparing for the next Lok Sabha elections. He is the lynchpin of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), an unlikely coalition of the Congress, NCP and their ideological opposite, the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray.