Apr 1, 2009: After Lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan and Mulayam Singh Yadav, it is NCP chief Sharad Pawar who has become the reason for Congress worry.
Pawar, who harbors ambition to be Prime Minister, will be sharing dais with Left party leader Prakash Karat at a function in Bhubaneswar on April 3.
Pawar's hobnobbing with Karat is seen as an attempt by the former to keep his options of joining the Third Front open.
RJD, LJP and SP, though part of UPA will be contesting against Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after the latter refused to accept the seat sharing arrangement for the two states.
Sharad Pawar is the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he founded in 1999.
He first became a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 1967 from the Congress ticket.
Pawar, who hails from Baramati town in the Pune district of Maharashtra, is the Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the UPA government.
He also served as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) during 2005-2008.