Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday ruled out the possibility of mid-term Lok Sabha elections in the country. The Maratha strongman, who was in Patna on the occasion of the 107th birth anniversary of late Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), did admit that differences with the Left leaders had put a question mark over the stability of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government, but exuded confidence that “we will iron out the differences”.

The NCP chief got a shot in the arm here on Thursday when he was successful in weaning away Nitish’s protégé Upendra Kushwaha into the party fold.

Kushwaha, an influential JD (U) leader, had been nursing grudges against his mentor for quite some time and was charged with raising a bogey of revolt against the present regime.

Pawar, who is desperate to get a foothold in Bihar, appointed Kushwaha as the president of the State NCP. The NCP chief got a bonus in the form of Sanjay Paswan, former BJP Union Minister (under Vajpayee’s prime ministership), who also joined the NCP in his presence.