Tariq Anwar quits NCP over Pawar backing PM on Rafale
The Nationalist Congress Party, seen as a key component of any anti- BJP alliance, plunged into a crisis Friday as Tariq Anwar, a senior MP and one of its founders, quit the party and his Lok Sabha seat over NCP supremo Sh ar ad Pa war’ s clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal. Mr Anwar’s future political course was unclear. There is speculation that he might either join the Congress or the RJD. In both scenarios, he will lend weight to the antiBJP “Mahagathbandhan” in Bihar, his home state.
Mr Anwar said he was “upset” with Mr Pawar over his clean chit for the PM, but there was no official reaction from the NCP supremo.
The NCP, seen as a key component of any antiBJP front, plunged into a crisis Friday as Tariq Anwar, a senior MP and one of its founders, quit the party and his Lok Sabha seat over party chief Sharad Pawar’s clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal.
Mr Anwar’s future political course was unclear. There is speculation that he might either join the Congress or the RJD. In both scenarios, he will lend weight to the anti- BJP “Mahagathbandhan” in Bihar, his home state.
The MP from Bihar’s Katihar had left the Congress in 1999 along with Sharad Pawar and P. A. Sangma, protesting that Sonia Gandhi had been made party president despite her foreign origins. “Our ( NCP) national president Sharad Pawar indirectly gave a clean chit to the PM, in a statement on Rafale deal. The PM is completely involved in the deal. The Opposition is demanding constitution of a JPC for probe. I’m upset with his statement,” Mr Anwar said after quitting the party and Lok Sabha seat.
Though there was no official reaction from Mr Pawar, his daughter and Baramati MP, Supriya Sule, in a series of tweets late on Friday evening said that it was “disappointing” that people have not heard Pawar saheb where he has clearly raised three questions. However, her clarification also did not address the primary question of whether the NCP chief had backed the PM on Rafale or not.