COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Sonia has 'legitimate' right to succeed, says Pawar

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar today said Sonia Gandhi is the chairperson of the party in Parliament and she had the ''legitimate'' right to succeed A B Vajpayee.

Soon after defeat of the confidence motion of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Pawar told newspersons, ''Secular parties would sit together now to provide an alternative government at the earliest''.

In a terse comment on the outgoing government's performance, Pawar said it "had to go because of it's misgovernance and inner contradictions''.

In reply to a question on the nature of the alternative government, he quipped, ''Let Vajpayee submit his resignation, we will form the government.''

Asked how would these parties would be able to muster enough majority to provide a stable government, Pawar said, ''We will win the confidence motion comfortably''.

Thanking the Bahujan Samaj Party, which voted against the government, he said Congress leaders had kept in touch with Mayawati who took the final decision after a meeting with Sonia Gandhi.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report