Mumbai: NCP chief Sharad Pawar is not in the race for Presidential election, according to a senior party leader.
The issue came up for discussion after Pawar met Maharashtra NCP ministers here on Monday.
"I am not in the race. I will not be opposition candidate for the President post," Sharad Pawar, the 81-year-old ex-defense minister, told a gathering of NCP Cabinet members.
An NCP minister, who attended the meeting, said Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh met Pawar on Sunday and affirmed his party's support to the NCP chief for the election for the next President of India, to be held on July 18.
Last week, when senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was in Mumbai in connection with the Rajya Sabha polls, he pitched for Pawar's name as the opposition's joint candidate for the presidential polls.
Kharge said the Congress had even consulted the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) over Pawar's candidature.
