The Hindu : My absence will not affect campaign: Pawar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 03, 2004

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My absence will not affect campaign: Pawar

By Sudha Menon

PUNE, APRIL 2 . The Nationalist Congress Party chief, Sharad Pawar, on Friday said that his absence from the campaign, due to health reasons, would not affect the Congress-NCP-RPI combine's prospects in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra which goes to the polls on April 26.

Mr. Pawar, who addressed the press after filing his nomination for the Baramati Lok Sabha seat, said he had prepared the party workers to take up the challenge.

The Maharashtra NCP president, R.R.Patil, and the former Deputy Chief Minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, would lead the party's campaign. Mr. Pawar said he had handed over the responsibility of campaigning in two constituencies each to the party and its allies. "If anything, campaigning will be more intense and the results will be better."

Replying to queries about his health, Mr. Pawar said he would undergo a series of tests recommended by doctors here and abroad for a swelling in his left jaw and said he might have to go in for surgery at the Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai on Saturday. "My doctors are confident that I will be able to get back to the campaign trail soon but I am not sure when," he said. Mr. Pawar refuted reports in the media that that he had undergone a by-pass surgery recently. "I still put in an 18-hour work schedule," he said.

Asked when he would join the Congress chief, Sonia Gandhi, for campaign, he said the date would depend on the results of the tests and the surgery that he might have to undergo.

Earlier, addressing his supporters, Mr. Pawar said: "The doctors have warned me that I will have to pay a heavy price if I do not heed their advice to go in for emergency tests and surgery. But I will be back with you as soon as they allow me."

Later in the night Mr. Pawar was admitted to the Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai to teat a `swelling in his oral cavity'.

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