Date:23/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/23/stories/2008012360061300.htm

National

Pawar is PM material: Thackeray

Pune: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Tuesday said Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar was “prime ministerial material” but the company of the Congress had “tainted” his image.

“Pawar who left the Congress on the issue of Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin went back to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance for a ministerial berth. I feel a man like him who has mettle and qualities is being wasted there,” Mr. Thackeray said in an interview carried by Saamna. — PTI