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Congress not to move no-confidence motion, says Pawar

Senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar has ruled out the possiblity of the Congress moving a no-confidence motion against the BJP government. He said the Congress is not in a hurry to capture power or topple the Vajpayee government but would go all out to expose the government's ''anti-people " in the Budget session commencing on Friday.

Talking to newspersons after an hour-long meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Pawar said, "We will not destablise the government, but the government will have to go if they cannot manage its affairs."

The political situation in the country figured during his meeting with Sonia.

Pawar said he would commence consultations with other Opposition leaders on fielding a joint candidate for the deputy speaker's post. He said the Congress would take up the issue of rise in prices of essential commodities and other economic issues during this parliamentary session.

He said individual issues like the show cause notice served on his close associate Praful Patel, MP, did not figure at his meeting with Sonia. Nor did he consider the action by the party high command a proxy war against him.

He said he gave a detailed explanation to Sonia on the circumstances leading to the defeat of Congress candidate R D Pradhan in last fortnight's Rajya Sabha biennial election. He also made it clear that he alone knew the contours of the strategy evolved to get both the Congress candidates elected when the party was short by six votes.

''Some friends helped us, but some ditched," he said, adding that he was concerned over the role of money power in the election.

He, however, parried questions whether the three-member team headed by Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy would visit Bombay to complete their investigations on crossvoting or about Sonia's response to his explanation.

Pawar, who arrived in Delhi last night from London, had a series of meetings with his followers including Praful Patel at his Parliament house office. Patel rushed to Pawar's office immediately after meeting Sonia earlier in the day.

Earlier in the day, Patel and state Congress president Ranjit Deshmukh met Sonia separately at the AICC headquarters and explained their opinions on the episode. Patel said he had already sent in his reply and had sought an appointment with the Congress president to personally explain his view.

UNI

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