Latur: Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will have to accept Manmohan Singh as the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) prime ministerial candidate, Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Monday.
"We have an alliance with NCP and so they will have to accept Manmohan Singh as the prime ministerial candidate," he said in Latur.
Asked about NCP workers and leaders' move to project party chief Sharad Pawar as PM candidate, Deshmukh reiterated that they will have to accept Singh as nominee for the top job.
He was speaking to media after laying the foundation stone of the residential school, Gold Rich, in MIDC area in Central Maharashtra. The school will be run by the Vilasrao Deshmukh Foundation.
Deshmukh's wife Vaishali, sons Ritesh, Amit and Dhiraj were also present on the occasion.
The former chief minister, who hails from Latur, scotched rumours that he will contest Lok Sabha election from Osmanabad.
"I am not going to contest Lok Sabha elections from anywhere. I will just engage myself in election campaigning," Deshmukh added.
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