Centre did not honour LoP's post: Pawar on Rahul not being allotted front-row seat at Independence Day event

Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar on Friday hit out at the Centre over Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi not being allotted a front-row seat at the Independence Day event, accusing it of not honouring the post of LoP. Addressing party workers of the opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi, Pawar said the threat to the Constitution is still not over even if the BJP did not get majority in the Lok Sabha polls.

"The Centre did not honour the post of Leader of Opposition," Pawar said.

"The Leader of Opposition was made to sit in the back row," said the NCP (SP) chief.

The Congress on Thursday said making Gandhi "sit in the fifth row" at the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "pettiness" and lack of respect for democratic traditions.

Pawar said that when he was the leader of the opposition during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure, his seating arrangement at the I-Day event was alongside the cabinet ministers. He recalled that when Manmohan Singh was the PM, the then LoP Sushma Swaraj was given a seat allotted to cabinet ranks.

The prime minister is an institution, and so is the leader of the opposition.

The prestige of the PM's post has to be maintained. Similarly, LoP's prestige is also equally important, Pawar stressed.