Sharad Pawar must take lead in merging smaller parties with Congress: Raut

Mumbai: Amid speculation of TMC’s merger with Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut has said that NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar must take the lead to merge Congress offshoots back into the party and build a united and strong Congress.

Raut said the country needs a strong Congress. “Smaller parties and netas that have come out of Congress must realise the current situation in the country and rejoin the Congress. If Sharad Pawar takes the lead this can happen,” Raut said. Stirring another controversy, Raut claimed that PM Modi and ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ founder Abhijit Dipke met in America.

“NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar should take the lead in merging the smaller parties which came into existence after splitting away from the Congress back with the Grand Old Party. There are leaders who were part of the Congress and Congress-led governments, and they still espouse the same ideology. If this (Congress) ideology comes together, then it will pose a big challenge to (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi. Sharad Pawar should take an initiative regarding this,” Raut said.

Raut asserted that Congress has to be strong, and leaders of smaller parties that emerged from it must understand the situation.

On Wednesday, Raut had suggested that parties like the TMC and NCP (SP), formed after their leaders quit the Congress, should return to the fold of the Grand Old Party so as to create a strong alternative to the BJP.

Raut shared a photo on social media. However, Dipke denied meeting PM Modi. “Sanjay Raut may have misunderstood, but I have never met Prime Minister Modi,” Dipke said.