NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday praised the RSS for dedication to its ideology and urged his party to create a worker base with unflinching commitment to progressive thoughts of social reformers Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule, BR Ambedkar and political stalwart Yeshwantrao Chavan.
Speaking to party workers at a meeting in south Mumbai, the former Union minister said, "The RSS has cadres that do not stray from the ideology of the Hindutva organization. No cost is incurred at which these cadres lose their path."
"We too must have such a cadre base which is committed to the ideology of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule, BR Ambedkar and Yashwantrao Chavan," said Pawar.
Reflecting on the Nationalist Congress Party (SP)'s severe drubbing in the November assembly polls in Maharashtra, he said, "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." The Sharad Pawar-led party put up a good performance in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra held in April-May, winning eight of the 10 seats it contested. However, the party could win only 10 of the nearly 90 seats in the November assembly polls where it fielded candidates.
"We failed to communicate to the OBCs (a major votebank) what we did for their upliftment," the former CM noted.
He said social engineering was the need of the hour 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.
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.
Similar steps for engaging with people and social engineering strategy were needed now, he asserted.
Pawar announced that 50 per cent of the tickets will be given by his party to new faces for the upcoming local bodies elections in the state.
He also hinted that the organisation will be revamped to make the party stronger.
The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) is one of the main constituents of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
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