I insisted for agriculture portfolio: Sharad Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar [ Images ] on Saturday said he had insisted for agriculture portfolio in the Manmohan Singh [ Images ] Ministry and was happy he would get it.

"Seventy per cent of people of our country live in villages, earning livelihood from agriculture. My heart beats for these people," Pawar told reporters in Delhi [ Images ].

He said he was satisfied with the representation his party got in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance [ Images ].

NCP, with nine MPs, has been given a Cabinet and two Minister of State slots.

Pawar denied he lobbied for the job of convenor of the alliance. "We are not discussing that."

On the coalition's Common Minimum Programme, he said, "Whatever we suggested, whatever proposals we made, have been accepted."