PUNE: NCP Chief Sharad Pawar has claimed that the Congress party will gradually fade away from political space to irrelevance in the country and the political vacuum will have to be filled by others. “We have to quickly fill the vacuum left by the Congress party, the labour class in the country, women and minorities feel that they have no representation, our party must take the leadership and challenge the rulers” Pawar said at his party’s state convention in Pune.“Congress has always been the main challenger to the BJP but looking at the way things are going, I can say that Congress is gradually fading away into irrelevance and it does not look like it will gain from here. We must occupy the space of Opposition party. The RSS is playing the communal card, everybody knows that the RSS is promoting parties like MIM so that the votes get polarised, Pawar added.Sharad Pawar’s NCP had given support to the minority BJP government in Maharashtra but later Pawar said that this support was only to provide stability in Maharashtra and his opposition to the BJP would continue. PM Narendra Modi was to attend an event organised in Pawar’s home town Baramati by a trust run by Pawar and his associates next week but just a day ago Pawar received a message from the PMO that Modi would not be coming for the event.