New Delhi: Keeping his post-poll alliance option open, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar - whose party is a key constituent of Congress-led UPA - will attend a Third Front rally in Orissa on Friday and share the platform with CPI-M chief Prakash Karat among others.
The Congress shrugged off Pawar's decision to attend the rally in Bhubaneshwar observing that its alliance with his NCP was only limited to Maharashtra. It hoped he will introspect as to what kind of message he will be sending by sharing the dais with leaders of CPI-M and BJD.
Pawar suggested he found nothing wrong in taking part in the rally. This will be the first time that Pawar will be sharing the dais with leaders of the Third Front which was launched in Tumkur in Karnataka last month as a non-Congress and non-BJP alternative.
Pawar said NCP has a seat-sharing deal with the ruling BJD in Orissa and therefore will be attending the rally. NCP has alliances with different parties in different states like the way Congress has forged ties.
Pawar's decision to attend the rally came a day after NCP caused a flutter in UPA when the party refused to accept Manmohan Singh as the prime ministerial candidate of the UPA saying he was such a candidate only of the Congress.
"Our alliance with NCP is for Maharashtra. But it is for them to introspect as to what kind of message they are sending by sharing the dais in Orissa," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.
CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury said Pawar's move was inevitable after the Congress took the stand that it will only have state-level alliances with its allies.
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