Mumbai: NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) president Sharad Pawar should tender an unconditional apology to the people of Maharashtra for opposing installation of Swantantraveer Savarkar's portrait in Parliament, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) general secretary Pramod Mahajan demanded in Mumbai on March 4.

"Pawar's opposition to Savarkar's portrait despite fully knowing the Hindu Mahasabha leader's unmatched contribution to the freedom struggle really pained me, the NCP president should tender an apology to the people of the state," Mahajan told reporters.

Asked about AICC (All India Congress Committee) president Sonia Gandhi and Left parties' opposition to Savarkar's portrait, the BJP leader said, "knowing her (Sonia's) ignorance about the country's history, freedom struggle and culture and Left's ideology. the opposition was not at all unexpected".

"How can a person, who did not take country's citizenship after marrying a person here for 19 years, can give a certificate of patriotism to a leader, who spent as many years in a cellular jail," Mahajan said referring to Sonia.

Congress and NCP's opposition to unveiling of Savarkar's portrait in Parliament would cost them dearly in next elections in Maharashtra, the BJP leader claimed.

Terming "deplorable" the opposition to Savarkar's portrait, Mahajan said leaders, with diametrically opposite ideologies, adorn the walls of the Central Hall of Parliament.

Posters of both former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan, who were put behind bars by the former, are also there in Parliament, he said.

PTI