New Delhi: Lashing out at Raj Thackeray’s remark on NCP playing ‘caste politics’, party chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president never takes a consistent stand on any issue and staying in ‘hibernation’ for three to four months a year is his ‘speciality’.
Earlier on Saturday, Raj Thackeray, speaking at a Mumbai rally accused Pawar of “playing caste card from time to time and dividing society”.
Reacting to this remark, Pawar, as quoted by news agency PTI, said, “On the contrary, NCP brings together people from all the castes. Raj Thackeray should have studied the history of NCP (before making comments).”
The former Union minister further said, “He spoke about NCP and caste politics. The fact is that Chhagan Bhujbal, and Madhukarrao Pichad among others had worked as the Leader of the House of NCP. Everybody knows which communities they belong to.”
Pawar said that his nephew and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar had become the Leader of the House after completing 30 years in the Assembly.
“Ajit Pawar decided to accept this position after many leaders in NCP felt that he deserved it since he has completed 30 years in the legislature,” the NCP chief said.
When asked about the MNS president, whose party is known for the aggressive sons-of-soil brand of politics, Pawar said, “As I said earlier, he can talk about anything. I don’t know what he saw in UP.”
He further said, “Election results were different because of different reasons. But in Lakhimpur Kheri, where farmers were killed….farmers were protesting on the borders of UP, but no one came to solve their issues. Many things happened under the Yogi government and if he (Raj Thackeray) is praising that government then I don’t want to say anything. Under (Chief Minister) Uddhav Thackeray’s guidance this won’t happen.”
Quizzed on the possibility of Raj Thackeray trying to align his party’s stand with the BJP ahead of Maharashtra civic polls, Pawar, referring to the performance of MNS in past elections, said, “Maharashtra knows what was his (Raj Thackeray’s) stand earlier and now. Currently, his stand seems to support Narendra Modi but we cannot say what will be his next move.”
“I can’t tell how effective MNS will be in municipal elections. But the figures from the last elections show that they (MNS) had won a limited number of seats and that number can be counted on the fingers of two hands. This kind of support he is getting, but I don’t know how will MNS fare in future,” the NCP chief added.