Q: Sharad Pawar has said that he'll not fight 2014 general elections. How do you look at the future of NCP in absence of Pawar?
Tariq Anwar: He has said that he will not fight elections anymore. He has fought 14 elections so far and has won all of them. He has more than 40 years of experience in electoral politics. Now he wants to be part of Rajya Sabha so that he could work more freely and devout more time for party work. He is not leaving politics.
Q: Your have a ‘blow hot, blow cold' kind of relationship with Congress in Maharashtra. How do you look at the future of this relationship? It is also said that you may join hands with Raj Thackeray.
Tariq Anwar: There is no question of joining hands with Raj Thackeray or Shiv Sena or BJP. Our outlook is completely different from theirs. Raj Thackeray has a very parochial outlook. They can't look beyond Maharashtra but we have a nationalist ideology and we respect all states and language. So far as Congress is concerned, our fundamental ideology remains same. Even in future, our endeavour will be to keep all secular and democratic forces united in order to keep communal forces at bay. We have to ensure that the secular votes don't get divided.
