Even as the power tussle in the Nationalist Congress Party has reached the doorsteps of the Election Commission, veteran leader Sharad Pawar on Saturday kickstarted his statewide tour in an apparent attempt to rebuild the party.
“I erred in trusting some people, but won't repeat the mistake. I have come here to apologise for the same,” Sharad Pawar said addressing a rally at Yeola in Nashik district. Yeola is the constituency of rebel party leader and minister Chhagan Bhujbal.
The NCP has plunged into a deep turmoil after Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar, along with several of his loyal MLAs and leaders, joined the ruling alliance in Maharashtra, resulting in a vertical split in the party. Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister while eight of his supporting NCP MLAs were also inducted into the cabinet.
Targeting the BJP government at the Centre, Pawar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken of massive corruption by NCP leaders, so he should punish those guilty.
“PM Modi has all the state machinery at his disposal. He should act against these leaders and punish them,” he said.
The octogenarian leader’s remarks came amid allegations that the NCP leaders who joined hands with Shiv Sena-BJP alliance were facing charges of corruption.
Later, talking to reporters in Nashik, Pawar stepped up his attack on the BJP, saying the saffron party appears to have plans to "destroy" state-level parties and weaken the Opposition.
Pawar, a former Union minister, said he has seen politics of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and P.V. Narasimha Rao, all of whom spoke (critically) about opposition parties but never sought to silence the Opposition.
"It appears that the BJP has plans to destroy state-level parties. They have done this in different places. In electoral democracy, the opposition party is as important as the ruling party. But the BJP's policy is to weaken the Opposition,” he said.
The BJP knows what is in store for it and hence it is splitting up other parties to ensure majority in the Lok Sabha in 2024, Pawar said, adding that this is very detrimental to electoral democracy.