New Delhi, July 19: Unhappy over party leader Sharad Pawar being denied number two position in the government, NCP ministers today skipped the meeting of Union Cabinet here, accusing the Congress of showing “indecency” and “pettiness” towards allies.
Sulking Agriculture Minister Pawar as well as Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel skipped the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh amid a row over the pecking order in the government that has relegated the NCP chief to the third position.
While the Cabinet meeting took place at the Prime Minister's residence at 6 PM, Pawar was closetted with Patel and Tripathi at the same time at his residence here. The row erupted after Mukherjee, who held the de facto post of the number two, quit the government to contest the Presidential poll.
“For the first time in eight years, Mr Pawar and Mr Praful Patel did not go to the Cabinet meeting,” NCP spokesman D P Tripathi told reporters.
Asked whether the pecking order was the issue, he claimed that Pawar had never sought any position and the “issues (for skipping the meeting) were much higher”.
Queried about the future course of action by NCP, he merely said, “We will discuss in the party.” NCP sources, however, stated that the party was unhappy at the way the Congress was running the coalition.
Accusing the Congress of being on “collision course while running the coalition”, a party source alleged that Congress was showing “indecency and pettiness. There was some arrangement. They disturbed it.”
The reference was to Pawar having the third place in the pecking order after the Prime Minister and Mukherjee, then Finance Minister. The party feels that after Mukherjee left the government to contest the Presidential poll, Pawar should have been automatically elevated to the number two position.
Demonstrating the severe unhappiness in NCP, a party leader said, “we are colleagues and not servants, sycophants or doormat of the Congress party.”
The controversy was triggered after the chair next to the Prime Minister was allocated to Defence Minister A K Antony at the last Cabinet meeting, signalling that he was now the number two in the government.
Pawar was allocated the seat next to Antony, apparently upsetting him as he used to sit at the same place when Mukherjee was in the government.
NCP had on Saturday last also stayed away from the UPA meeting on Vice Presidential poll candidate.
The trouble with NCP came at a time when the Congress was regaling at the Trinamool Congress' U-turn to back Pranab Mukherjee's candidature for the post of President. On whether the NCP is planning to pull out of the government, Praful Patel said, “there is no such thing”.
