Pawar to accompany PM on Vidarbha tour

NEW DELHI: Congress appears to have finally succeeded in placating Sharad Pawar with the Union agriculture minister agreeing to accompany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his tour of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra on June 30 in which he would announce a financial package for farmers.

“Mr Pawar would be accompanying the Prime Minister in his tour of Vidarbha. The agriculture and finance ministries have finalised a package which would be announced by the prime minister during the visit,” Congress spokesman Rajiv Shukla said today.

His statement at the All India Congress committee (AICC) briefing came a day after Pawar made it known that he would not be accompanying the prime minister during the tour and would be deputing union minister Praful Patel, who hails from Vidarbha. Pawar had on Tuesday expressed reservations over hastily deciding on a package.

“The Prime Minister wants to go... I am sure he will go. But there are expectations from people. There has to be clarity”, he had said after a 90-minute meeting with finance minister P Chidambaram on the issue.

Recent weeks had witnessed growing tensions between Congress and Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra over the issue of Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections in the state.