Pawar will be ready to become PM in case of a consensus: Patel

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NCP chief Sharad Pawar will be certainly ready to become the Prime Minister if there is situation where there is a consensus on the issue, his party leader and Union minister Praful Patel has said.

He has also dismissed the possibility of a merger between the Congress and the NCP. “And this gossip of merger with the Congress, which happens many times, that is never possible,” Patel said in an interview to Prabhu Chawla on Teekhi Baat television programme.

“If there is a situation where there is consensus on the issue, then why not Prabhuji, Sharad Pawarji will be certainly ready (to become Prime Minister),” he said, adding, “But I think to talk like this now is basically wrong.”

Noting that Pawar will remain the president of NCP and that the reins of the party will be with him even if he did not contest elections, Patel said Pawar will be NCP’s candidate for the post of Prime Minister.

Asked if he was willing to work under Rahul Gandhi if UPA is in majority after the general elections, Patel said, “Certainly.”

To a question that he and Pawar would both be willing to work under Rahul, the minister for heavy industries said, “Who will take decisions (speaking of the Congress-led the UPA) is not the issue. “The government runs on the basis of the largest party, the Congress is the largest party in UPA and it does not seem that in future they won’t be the largest party,” Patel said.

He also said there is a similarity between the NDA and the UPA as far as foreign policy, economic policy are concerned. “This does not mean we are comparing NDA and UPA,” he said.