Sharad Pawar won`t contest 2014 General Elections: NCP

Mumbai: Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar will not contest the 2014 General Elections.

Pawar’s party also said here that he had no prime ministerial ambitions. NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said that despite NCP workers` demand that Pawar should contest the General Elections, he had firmly refused to go back on his decision made earlier. Malik was responding to Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray’s comments that Pawar nursed ambitions of becoming the prime minister, while his nephew Ajit Pawar wanted to be the chief minister of Maharashtra. "Uddhav says he had no such (chief ministerial) dreams. You don`t get such dreams because your party has no strength. Take care of your own house before you criticise others. Your party and home were divided because of power struggle. "Pawar saheb has not told his party workers to take care of his daughter or nephew like the late Sena chief, who asked his followers to look after his son and grandson," Malik said. "NCP knows its strength. Our leaders cannot be in the PM race by contesting only 22 Lok Sabha seats," he said. Malik also alleged that the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) was competing with private builders in the housing sector and charging exorbitant prices for its tenements by forgetting its objective of providing affordable housing. He said non-official appointments have not been made on the MHADA board for last 10 years because of which officials were having a free hand there. The government should direct MHADA to lower the prices of its flats under Section 164 of the MHADA Act, he said. Also, taking a dig at Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan flagging off the safety trial run of Metro railway yesterday, Malik said people of Mumbai are not interested in such "trailers". "They (people of Mumbai) want to know when Mono and Metro railway will be available for actual usage of Mumbaikars," he said. ANI