Mid-term polls likely in three-four months: Pawar

Hinting at polls within the next three-four months in the standoff between Congress and Left over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar asked party workers to prepare for them.

"During a meeting with party workers from Ahmednagar district here last night, Pawar said mid-term elections may take place within three-four months," NCP state unit president Arun Gujarathi, who was present at the meeting, told PTI.

"However, Pawar said if wise counsel prevails, then the government may continue and complete its term," Gujarathi said.

Asked if Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule, now a Rajya Sabha member, was likely to contest the next Lok Sabha poll from Baramati in Western Maharashtra, represented by Pawar currently, Gujarathi said, "Pawar Saheb has already announced that he will not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls again."

Gujarathi's assertion came a day after news reports that Pawar had told Sule to concentrate on nurturing Baramati rather than spending time in the Rajya Sabha in the face of a possible mid-term poll.

Referring to the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee report on farmers' suicides which sought to blame Union Agriculture Minister Pawar for plight of agriculturists, Gujarathi said, "Politics is a game of blaming the other."

The eight-year old Congress-NCP Democratic Front is in its second term in the state.

"The problem of farmers' suicide is not limited to Maharashtra but is also there in neighbouring states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh," he added.