Madhukar Chaudhary urges Sharad Pawar to merge NCP with Congress

Mumbai, Jan 5 (UNI) Former Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Madhukarrao Chaudhary, who quit the NCP today to join the Congress, has advised NCP chief Sharad Pawar to dissolve his seven-year-old political outfit and merge it with the Congress.

Talking to reporters after his formal induction into the Congress today, Mr Chaudhary, who had held several important postitions in the Congress and state government before joining Mr Pawar's NCP, said the political situation in the country has undergone a sea-change since the time Mr Pawar raised the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin and floated his party.

Mr Chaudhary said, while in the NCP, he had stayed away from active politics because unwanted tendencies like corruption had crept into the party. Such tendencies were less in the Congress than in the NCP, he claimed.

Lauding the leadership of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mr Chaudhary said only the Congress can strengthen democracy in the country.

''Mrs Gandhi's leadership is based on moral principles,'' he said adding that she symbolises the progressive and secular political force in the country.

Mr Chaudhary said he had written to Mr Pawar explaining the reasons behind his decision to quit the NCP, and had also advised Mr Pawar to merge the NCP with the Congress.

In his letter to Mr Pawar, Mr Chaudhary said, ''I had followed you out of the Congress in 1999 because I felt every body has the right to raise any issue in the party forum and seek a discussion on it. I felt your expulsion from the Congress was wrong. I did not feel that you had violated party discipline when you raised Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue within the party.'' While urging Mr Pawar to merge the NCP with the Congress, Mr Chaudhary's letter, dated December 4, 2006, states that since Mr Pawar, following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, had submitted before the President that he would back the UPA government, it implied that he (Mr Pawar) was not averse to Mrs Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister. Mrs Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue has already been settled by the people of India, he further stated.

UNI