‘Rahul was only boosting morale’

A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi reportedly directed his partymen that if they were so keen on going it alone in the polls, they would have to win all 300 seats, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said that such statements are made by leaders to boost morale of the party workers and there was nothing wrong in that. The Gandhi scion was on a two-day visit to Maharashtra as part of his election preparedness programme across the country. On Thursday, while addressing a gathering of party workers in Pune, when a demand was made to snap ties with the NCP, Mr Gandhi asked them to ensure they win maximum seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections if they wanted to get rid of a coalition government in the future. Irked with the statement, senior NCP leader D.P. Tripathi strongly reacted and said, “I will also ask my party workers to ensure maximum seats in the forthcoming elections so that we don’t need to make an alliance with the Congress.” However, Mr Malik chose to tone down the aggressive stand taken by his senior leader, and instead blamed the media for twisting Mr Gandhi’s comments. “Party leaders have to give such statements while interacting with the party workers to boost their morale and we don’t find anything wrong with it,” Mr Malik said. He asserted that since 1996, no government at the Centre had come to power on its own. “Neither the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee nor the current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were able to form a single party government. The pattern of coalition government is in place even in Maharashtra since 1995,” the NCP leader said. “This is also a ground reality and both the Congress-NCP are very much aware of it,” Mr Malik said, adding, “Some people are trying to create a misunderstanding between us.” The Congress and NCP relations have been strained ever since chief minister Prithviraj Chavan took over the reins of the state. The recent veiled attack by NCP chief Sharad Pawar on the CM over his style of working has only increased the tension between the ruling parties.