Sharad Pawar, who had opposed Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins in 1997 but patched up with her later, has now come out with details of how she had preferred PV Narasimha Rao to him in 1991 because she did not want “someone with an independent mind” to be the prime minister and how their relationship lacked “warmth”.
He enumerates a number of instances when as the Leader of the Congress group in the Lok Sabha, he was constantly undermined by Sonia in her capacity as Congress president during 1996-97.
Pawar, who was a minister in the Union government for 10 years when the UPA was headed by Gandhi, describes as “shocking” an amendment to the Congress Parliamentary Party constitution in the early 1990s “solely” to make her the CPP leader, even without being elected to Parliament.
These are disclosed in a book ‘Life on my terms-From the Grassroots and Corridors of Power’, penned by Pawar, which was formally released on Thursday.
Pawar in his book says ‘Self-styled’ loyalists of 10, Janpath, where Gandhi resides, convinced Gandhi that it would be better to back Rao in 1991 as Prime Minister over him as the “Gandhi family was not about to let someone with independent mind” to get the top post, Pawar has claimed.
The loyalists, including late Arjun Singh, himself an aspirant for the PM’s post had played a “clever trick” to convince Gandhi in the decision to choose Rao over Pawar, says the NCP president, who became Defence Minister in Rao’s Cabinet.
He says his name was considered for the top post in the party not only in Maharashtra but also in other states.
Pawar was personally more circumspect as he was aware that a lot depended on the inclination of 10 Janpath, where Sonia Gandhi resides.