Go out and meet people, Pawar orders NCP leaders

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday expressed his displeasure with senior leaders of the party for not travelling and reaching out to the people “affected by the wrong policies of the state and central government”

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday expressed his displeasure with senior leaders of the party for not travelling and reaching out to the people “affected by the wrong policies of the state and central government”. The disapproval was expressed by him in a meeting called to take stock of the situation in the current political scenario.

Mumbai, India - July 24, 2016: Mumbai Cricket Association President Sharad Pawar during a press conference at MCA in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, July 24, 2016. (Photo by Arijit Sen/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

“Except for a few, the rest of the leaders who have been given the responsibility of different regions are not travelling. Why are we not reaching out to the people? I want everyone to be on the field. Prepare your plans and submit a copy to my office,” the veteran politician is said to have told senior leaders at the meeting held at NCP headquarters.

The development assumes significance against the backdrop of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ which has received a good response in the state. Taking a leaf out of Gandhi’s book, the NCP too has decided to hold a foot march starting from next month called ‘Shetkari Dindi’ (Farmers’ Procession) to highlight the agrarian crisis, inflation and rising unemployment across Maharashtra.

“It is still in the planning stage. A team of NCP leaders is going to conduct a survey of the route expected to start from Amravati district in Vidarbha,” said a senior NCP leader. “We are planning it in such a way that the procession should be in Nagpur when the winter session of the state legislature from December 19-29 is underway.”

NCP leaders stressed that this was not the first time such a foot march had been undertaken and that their party chief had embarked on one decades ago when he was in the Congress. The ‘Shetkari Dindi’ then was from Jalgaon to Nagpur on December 7, 1980 and covered many districts of North Maharashtra and Vidarbha. Pawar had walked around 440 kilometres.