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Fractured verdicts inevitable: Pawar

Senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar has asked mainline parties to get used to the concept of running coalition governments, saying the coming general elections would also throw up a fractured mandate.

Pawar, who was addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi yesterday, said, ''It is unlikely that the election will throw up a very different mandate... Hence it is imperative that solutions be looked at to deal with the situation.''

He attributed the fractured mandates to the fallout of ignored regional aspirations. Besides, the Mandal Commission had inspired assertiveness among backward classes, which political parties are still struggling to understand.

The national leadership, he lamented, has failed at every level to acknowledge and respect the ambitions of these varied interest groups. The fluid political situation would continue if the political leadership failed to come to terms with the ground reality, he added.

Stating that India had been traditionally led by the privileged educated class, he pointed out that ''it is the same discerning, educated, more aware and most privileged sections who have let down the country''. He also lamented that power and decision-making was getting more and more centralised and those with access to the corridors of power were trying to fend off others.

UNI

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