NCP must work to fill political vacuum in Maharashtra, says Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his party was capable of filling the political vacuum in Maharashtra and asked the state leadership to work on building the next generation of leaders.

Addressing the state party executive meeting, Pawar said there is always a political vacuum (in any state), which was filled by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi.

"Such a vacuum exists in Maharashtra and NCP can fill it by emerging as an alternative. We have to work to unite all forces which oppose the BJP's ideology," Pawar said.

Even though civic and local body polls are delayed, the NCP leadership in the state shouldn't be complacent and must utilise this time to encourage a new breed of leadership, the former Union minister said.

It was NCP which took the lead to organise a protest against the state government scheduled on December 17 in Mumbai, Pawar asserted.

Speaking on the simmering border row with Karnataka, Pawar claimed Maharashtra's stand on the rights of Marathi-speaking people there was taken to a different level by the government in the southern state.

"The state government in Karnataka used its machinery to supress the Marathi speaking people and now they hold the winter session of the their legislature in Belagavi," he said.

Pawar said the border situation was normalising, adding he had been told that police 'bandobast' outside the homes of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) had been removed and traffic in the region was flowing smoothly.

Pawar also expressed anger at a NCP taluka president taking the lead to announce that some villages in Nashik district want to merge with Gujarat.

"This shouldn't happen. The NCP stands for the unity of Maharashtra at all costs," Pawar.