Singh told reporters it was very obvious that the agenda Pawar had set before himself was to do everything possible to damage Congress party which he belonged untill recently and the party which is fighting communal elements.Singh, who is also chairman of the AICC minority affairs department, was sarcastic about Pawar's well documented record as champion of the minorities in the history of Maharashtra over the last decade."He said Pawar's charge over being marginalised in the Congress was baseless as Sonia Gandhi appointed him opposition leader in the lok sabha.Pawar had "politicised" the issue of people's self-respect by calling Sonia unfit for prime ministership due to her foreign origin, he felt.Singh charged Pawar with bungling talks with the Samajwadi Party president Mulayam singh Yadav on government formation and giving a "clean chit" to prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during the lok sabha debate on the confidence motion in the BJP-led government.

On Pawar criticising Sonia's coterie, Singh said "she does not need it and can take her own decisions." He alleged that that when people want to force their views and fail to do so, they conveniently use the word coterie to escape their failure. He clarified that at every level, Gandhi held wide consultations in an free and frank atmosphere, where the openess surpassed even her predecessors.

When asked about the allegation against him that he misguided Gandhi into believing that she had the support of 272 MPs to form an alternative government after the fall of the Vajpayee led alliance government, he said,"it is not my want to mislead anyone, leave alone my leader." Her statement to the media after meeting the president of india that she had the support of 272 MPs was not a claim but a statement of fact as the same number voted against the government."It is disinformation that she did not take into consideration, the views of all party members while going to the president," he added.

Singh said that Pawar, stated on May six that Sonia Gandhi was the leader of the Congress and the party would project her as the prime ministerial candidate. "He did this on his own. Nobody asked him to do so." But, on May 15, when the Congress Working Committee met for a general review of the political situation, Pawar came out with the idea that the country and the party can not accept Gandhi as the prime minister because of her foreign origin.

"The nation expects an answer from Pawar as to what made him change his mind between may six and 15," he said.On Kargil issue, Singh said that the nation has a right to know on whatdate the prime minister came to know about the Pakistani intrusion. "The prime minister has so far rejected the demand for a rajya sabha session probably for the single reason that he does not want to answer questions like when he came to know about the intrusion in Kargil."