NCP reacts sharply to Tariq Anwar's exit

The Sharad Pawar-led NCP has reacted sharply to the unexpected exit of one of its founders, Tariq Anwar, saying that it was surprising that he "mixed up the facts."

"It is a sad day for us that our senior colleague has decided to quit the Lok Sabha and also the NCP," party General Secretary Praful Patel, a close aide of Pawar, said.

He said that it was very surprising that Anwar had based his decision on an interview of Pawar to a news channel, wherein the facts were clear on the Rafale deal.

Pawar's daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule said that the NCP President had, in fact, raised three questions, and that "people have not heard what he said."

"Pawar Saheb asked.... What is the justification of a 300% price rise from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,670 crore... If doubts were raised and the government was so confident, then why are they shying away from a JPC... when the BJP raised both price and specification issues during Bofors allegations, why are they hiding behind artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-a-vis commercial price and offset agreements (now)?