NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar Thursday praised the “unwavering loyalty” of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadres to the Hindutva organisation’s ideology as he urged his party to create a worker base with unflinching commitment to progressive thoughts of social reformers like Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule and BR Ambedkar.
“We, too, should have such a cadre base,” he said.
Addressing party workers at a meeting in south Mumbai, the former Union minister also reflected on the Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s severe drubbing in the November assembly polls in Maharashtra.
“We became complacent after the Lok Sabha election success, while the ruling alliance (BJP-led Mahayuti) took immediate steps to contain its reverses in the parliamentary polls,” he said.
The Sharad Pawar-led party put up a good performance in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, winning eight of the 10 seats it contested. The party, however, failed to maintain the same momentum in the November assembly polls and could win just 10 of the nearly 90 seats where it fielded candidates.
“We failed to communicate to the OBCs (a major votebank) what we did for their upliftment,” the former CM noted.
Pawar stressed on the need for social engineering to end the caste divide in Marathwada, the epicentre of Maratha quota movement, especially after the death of a Dalit man in judicial custody in Parbhani district and brutal murder of a village sarpanch in Beed district, news agency PTI reported.
Both districts are located in Marathwada, a region in central Maharashtra.
“Such a situation prevailed even during the Marathwada university renaming controversy, but I went to the university and interacted with all stakeholders,” recalled Pawar, who was the Maharashtra CM at the time.
Pawar declared that 50 per cent of the tickets will be allotted by his party to new faces for upcoming local bodies elections in the state.
He also indicated that the organisation will be overhauled to strengthen the party.
The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) is a key constituent of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
