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NCP workers hold protests in Pune after Sharad Pawar’s house attacked in Mumbai
Workers have demanded the arrest of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation employees’ leader Gunwant Sadavarte
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers held agitations in Pune to condemn the attack on supremo Sharad Pawar’s residence in Mumbai on Friday and demanded the arrest of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) employees’ leader Gunwant Sadavarte.
Chaos prevailed outside Pawar’s residence as over a hundred striking workers of the MSRTC staged angry protests, accusing the veteran leader of not doing anything to help them.
NCP spokesman Ankush Kakade said, “We condemn the attack on Pawar’s residence. The way Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are supporting the attack, shows that the agitations on Pawar’s residence were pre-planned. Sadavarte should be arrested immediately.”
Employees of the state transport body, which has over 90,000 persons on its payroll, are on strike since November 2021. While Pawar’s party is part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra, the transport portfolio is held by the Shiv Sena’s Anil Parab.
Pawar’s daughter and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule tried to placate the protesters outside the house, saying she was ready to talk to them but she must ensure first that her parents who were inside were safe.
Police later rounded up many of the protesters and took them away, while additional force was deployed outside the house.
Among the main demands of the striking MSRTC workers are that they be treated on par with state government employees and the cash-strapped corporation be merged with the government.
The protest came a day after the Bombay High Court asked the workers to resume duty by April 22. Following the court order, transport minister Parab had assured that no action would be taken against the workers who join duty by the deadline set by the HC.
But on Friday afternoon, a group of MSRTC employees reached Pawar’s residence and started shouting slogans against the former Union minister.
Some protesters were also seen hurling footwear towards the house.
“Some 120 employees of MSRTC have died by suicide since the strike began. These are not suicides but murders, caused by the state’s policy.... Sharad Pawar has not done anything to resolve the issue,” a protester told reporters.
Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, who belongs to the NCP, said the workers should not have taken law into their own hands.
“The undesirable turn which the protest has taken is not good. The agitation outside NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence in Mumbai was unnecessary,” he tweeted in Marathi.
It was “well known” who was inciting the agitators, he said without naming anyone, while also stating that the state government was open to holding dialogue with the agitators.
BJP leader Pravin Darekar said the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in the state was “flint-hearted.”
“Over 100 MSRTC employees have lost their lives, but the state government was never serious about breaking the deadlock,” he said.
State Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde alleged that this was a “pre-planned agitation targeted at Sharad Pawar.
(With PTI inputs)
