Civic polls: Sharad Pawar advises restraint to save ties with Congress

As the tension between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) escalated to a full-blown war of words, prior to the civic election; Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar advised his party leaders to show restraint.

While speaking to the media in Mumbai on Friday, Pawar expressed concern over “the language and personal attacks” by his party men on Congress leaders.

He advised his party workers to practise restraint and refrain from making personal comments.

Pawar’s remarks come at a time when bad blood between the two parties reached new heights with ministers of both parties launching no-holds-barred attacks against each other. The attacks were so intense that political commentators pointed out that such comments would have seemed more fitting coming from the opposition.

Recently in Sangli, the state home minister, RR Patil, taking an apparent dig at industry minister Narayan Rane, said, “No minister from Sangli was ever booked for murder.”

Patil was referring to charges against Rane in the murder of Congress worker Shridhar Naik from Kankavli in the early 90s.
Although Rane was absolved of the charges, his political opponents never fail to take a dig at him.

Patil’s remarks came after Rane launched a verbal attack on NCP leader Ajit Pawar at a public meeting in Sindhudurg.
While addressing a rally in Sindhudurg, Rane had accused Pawar of being involved in land scams and of engineering defections in Congress.

He had also threatened to hold public meetings in Pawar’s home territory, Pune, to expose him. Pawar, in retaliation, had hinted that Rane might have “lost his mental balance”.

In reaction to Rane’s threat of holding ‘Vastraharan sabha’ (meeting to expose the misdeeds of the NCP), NCP workers’ union has threatened to display black flags at every political meet organised by the Congress.

Political commentators opine that these digs point to the cracks appearing in the relations between the two parties that are not only alliance partners, but are also involved in policy decisions at state level. A senior Congress leader said the NCP had gone all out to wipe out the party in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

“Had the NCP agreed to be in coalition with us in both the municipal corporations, it would have resulted in a clear victory for both the parties. Instead, the NCP is engineering defections in the Congress rank and file to weaken the party,” the leader said.
With the assembly elections barely two years away, many feel that both parties are trying to gauge popular sentiments by going it alone in the local body polls.

“If the NCP wins the civic polls on its own, chances of it going alone in the assembly polls can’t be ruled out,” the Congress leader said.