NCP open to form united front of Congress offshoots: Sharad Pawar

MUMBAI: NCP president Sharad Pawar today said he was open to idea of forging a united front with parties that were once part of Congress to take on the saffron alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena, but not at the cost of party's identity.

"If such a proposal to bring all parties of progressive ideologies to fight the Sena-BJP comes up, we will give it a serious thought. But it does not mean giving up our own identity," Pawar told reporters when asked if bringing together parties that were once part of Congress is possible on the lines of merger of Janata Pariwar parties.

Pawar said the Janata experiment would work in Bihar Assembly elections.

"Bihar is politically alert and the change in national politics would start from the state Assembly polls," he said.

To a question on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi taking up farmers issues after return from his unexplained sabbatical, Pawar said, "More than where he had disappeared, what is important is that he is back to his work. One has to see how seriously he is taking it up."

Pawar said the BJP-Shiv Sena government could face instability ahead of the crucial Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections due in 2017.

"A BJP leader confided in me about this. BJP had bagged maximum seats in Mumbai in Assembly polls. If they demand seats in the BMC polls in ratio of their performance in the Assembly polls, what the BJP leader told me would come true," he said.