Pawar

Thane, Sept. 26 (PTI): Two days after declaring that he would not have joined a government headed by Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar today said he was ready to accept her as Prime Minister.

The Nationalist Congress Party chief said the United Progressive Alliance was ?ready for her leadership as Prime Minister?, but the Congress president had no greed for power and she sacrificed for the nation by selecting Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister.

Pawar, who left the Congress over the foreign origin of Sonia, said her stature went up after refusing prime ministership. Sonia showed a new direction to the country, he pointed out.

Addressing rallies at Murbad and Shahpur in the district for the Congress-NCP combine ? Maharashtra is going to polls in October ? Pawar alleged that the previous National Democratic Alliance government did not bother to assist Maharashtra to solve several problems like malnutrition, farmers? plight and unemployment. It was only after the UPA government came to office, the NCP chief claimed, that the Prime Minister granted an aid of over Rs 500 crore in the form of foodgrains.

Pawar said the central government would give top priority to problems faced by farmers in the state and indicated that steps would be taken to waive their loans.

The NCP leader said the new government would also adopt measures to revive industries in the state.