Amravati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a "national calamity" who needs to be defeated in the April May Lok Sabha polls to safeguard the nation, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said here Monday. Pawar said Modi should not talk about the ability of the opposition to lead the country nor about unity in the Pawar household. He said the UPA, of which his party was a part, had run the country well for a decade from 2004 under then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"We can run the country well. Modi need not worry about our ability," he said. Pawar also attacked the PM for the latter's personal diatribe against him at a rally in Wardha. Modi had said Pawar had lost grip on the Nationalist Congress Party which was wracked by a "family feud".