Sharad Pawar advocates 'unity of Opposition parties' for 2024 elections

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 31 (ANI): Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday advocated the unity of Opposition parties for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He also said he will consider contesting elections together under the Common Minimum Program.
Addressing a press conference, advocating Opposition unity, Pawar said, "Can consider contesting elections together under the Common Minimum Programme."
On the question of Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation from Congress, the NCP chief said it is a internal matter of Congress.
"Who will not be the president of Congress or who is leaving Congress, all these are their internal matter and I am an outsider," he said.
Azad, who quit Congress last week and has decided to float his own political party.
In his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi, Azad had targeted party leadership, particularly Rahul Gandhi, over how the party has been run in the past nearly nine years.
In the hard-hitting five-page letter, Azad had claimed that a coterie runs the party while Sonia Gandhi was just "a nominal head" and all the major decisions were taken by "Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs".
Taking a dig at the Centre over teh misuse of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Pawar said, "BJP has started a new program. On the basis of money, ED, and CBI, the government is being brought down. The same is being tried in Jharkhand just like it was done in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. We have to see how we will face this attempt of the BJP. Opposition must unite."
Lauding Bihar Chief Minister for breaking alliance with NDA, the NCP chief said the latter has taken a good political decision.
"Nitish Kumar is our old colleague and he has taken a good political decision," added Pawar.
Kumar broke the alliance with BJP and staked a claim to form a government with RJD earlier this month.
Nitish Kumar had broken away from the BJP and formed a government with the RJD and other parties earlier this month. The Chief Minister and his deputy - RJD's Tejashwi Yadav - took oath on August 10.
The Bihar Grand Alliance has a combined strength of 163. Its effective strength climbed to 164 after Independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh extended support to Nitish Kumar. (ANI)