Nashik:
Hitting out at the BJP's Prime ministerial candidate
Narendra Modi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar today said that the Gujarat Chief Minister is in a rush to take over the country's top post.
"He (Narendra Modi) appears to be in a hurry to grab the PM's post and power and hence the BJP is posing him as a PM candidate. No party has announced a PM candidate in advance in our representative democracy," Mr Pawar said addressing a joint workers' rally of the Congress and the NCP in Nashik last evening.
Slamming Mr Modi further, he said his "claims of Gujarat as a model of progress and development are all false as statistics indicate otherwise."
At the same meeting, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said marketing techniques and media were being used to create an "illusion" that the BJP is an alternative to the Congress-led UPA.
"They are trying to misguide people of the nation. I challenge the Chief Minister of Gujarat to compare the progress of Maharashtra and Gujarat over the years," he said.
People should not elect a candidate whose "personality appears to be dictatorial", he added.
"He (Modi) seems to have hijacked his own party and is on a spree of insulting its senior leaders," Mr Chavan alleged.