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Pawar does not 'want to be PM'

Rebel Congress leader Sharad Pawar today stood firm on his stand of not accepting party president Sonia Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate. He said that he had raised the issue keeping in mind the 'national interest' and 'self-respect' of Indians.

Talking to the media today at his residence 'Ramalayam' in south Bombay, Pawar said that he does not nurse ambitions of becoming the prime minister and would support the candidature of any India-born person.

He said Sonia's 'foreign-born' tag would make it difficult for the Congress to approach Indian voters who would question the absence of a worthy leader among the 900 million countrymen and women.

He said that he and ''his colleagues would take the issue to the Public''.

He met his supporters for the second day today at the Y B Chavan centre in south Bombay.

He said many Congressmen including CWC members fully supported the stand taken by him but could not come out openly due to their own problems.

He lambasted his critics in the party saying that people who cannot win elections and do not have a base of their own gave incorrect advise to the party leadership poisoning their ears against the state leaders.

UNI

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