Mumbai:NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday praised the RSS for its dedication to its ideology and urged his party to create a worker base with an unflinching commitment to progressive thoughts of social reformers Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule, BR Ambedkar and political stalwart Yeshwantrao Chavan.
Addressing party workers at a meeting in south Mumbai, the former Union minister noted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has committed cadres who show unwavering loyalty to the Hindutva organisation's ideology and do not deviate from their path at any cost.
"We, too, should have such a cadre base which is committed to the ideology of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule, BR Ambedkar and Yashwantrao Chavan," Pawar said.
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, in the November assembly polls, the party could win just 10 of the nearly 90 seats where it fielded candidates.
"We failed to communicate to the OBCs (a major vote bank) what we did for their upliftment," the former CM noted. He stressed the need for social engineering to end the caste divide in Marathwada, the epicentre of the Maratha quota movement, especially after the death of a Dalit man in judicial custody in Parbhani district and the 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 declared that 50 per cent of the tickets will be allotted by his party to new faces for upcoming local bodies elections in the state.
He also indicated that the organisation will be overhauled to strengthen the party. The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) is a key constituent of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
