After the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) faction has now expressed reservations about Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar sharing the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an award function in Pune on August 1, stating that it created confusion among the public when Opposition leaders attended such events.
The Congress, the Sena (UBT) and Mr. Pawar’s NCP faction are allies in the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra. Mr. Pawar’s decision to attend the event as chief guest where Mr. Modi will be conferred the Lokmanya Tilak National award has sparked discomfort within the regional MVA Opposition as well as the national-level INDIA coalition of opposition parties.
Remarking that people were “uneasy in their minds” about Mr. Pawar’s decision, Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut said: “While we cannot advise Sharad Pawar, people are uneasy with his decision. The dissatisfaction among the public today is palpable because of the politics that has been played by the BJP in Maharashtra and the country in the past few years. So, there will be confusion among the people when leaders from the Opposition MVA or INDIA coalition attend such functions.”
Mr. Raut, known for his affinity to the NCP chief, said it was up to Mr. Pawar to dispel this confusion regarding his stance.
“However, there are no doubts about the firmness of either the MVA in Maharashtra or the INDIA coalition at the national level,” said the Sena (UBT) leader, who is a member of the Rajya Sabha.
Arvind Sawant, Lok Sabha member from the Sena (UBT), said Mr. Pawar ought to reconsider his decision to attend the event.
Remarking that Bal Gangadhar ‘Lokmanya’ Tilak had given the slogan “Swaraj (self-rule) is my birthright”, Mr. Sawant, in a jibe at Mr. Modi and the ruling BJP, questioned whether there was any Swaraj today?
“Instead, today we have ‘swa- rajya’ - the rule of one person. Leaders of their party (BJP) are destroying the Constitution. Mr. Pawar should not be going for the event,” said Mr. Sawant.
Meanwhile, the political temperature ahead of the PM’s visit to the city heated up with the Youth Congress putting up posters urging the PM to ‘Go Back’ and ticking him off for neglecting the situation in the northeastern State of Manipur.
Posters exhorting Mr. Modi to ‘Go to Manipur, Face the Parliament’ and stop doing his Mann ki Baat programme and start talking about the turmoil in Manipur instead mushroomed at several points across Pune.
Pune city Congress chief Arvind Shinde informed that all the MVA parties including Mr. Pawar’s own NCP faction, along with several other outfits including the Left parties would be participating in the ‘Modi, Go Back’ demonstration by waving black flags against the PM during his visit.
Before the award event, Mr. Modi will offer worship at Pune’s iconic Dagdusheth temple. Following the award ceremony, he will lay the foundation stone for various development projects and flag off metro trains marking inauguration of services on completed sections of the two corridors of phase 1 of the Pune Metro.
