Solapur: NCP chief Sharad Pawar mocked the Shiv Sena on Saturday for its poll promise to provide a meal at Rs 10, reminding that it had, in the past, introduced `zunka-bhakar' centres which later vanished.
Ahead of the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Sena has promised to provide a full meal to the poor at Rs 10.
At a campaign rally at Barshi in Solapur district, Pawar reminded that in the 1990s, the first Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government had started centers to sell zunka-bhakar, a rural staple, at subsidized price.
Nobody ever realised when these centers folded up and Sena workers `grabbed' the space provided for them, he said.
"And now this Rs 10 meal scheme. Are people asking you to run the state or to cook meals?" Pawar asked.
He also referred to statements by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray that the opposition was not putting up any fight in this election.
"The chief minister said their wrestler is ready, but there is none (to fight). But you fight with a wrestler, and not with 'such' people," Pawar said with a suggestive waving of the right hand.
"If there is no strong opponent in these polls, why there is a need for nine rallies of prime minister Narendra Modi, twenty rallies of home minister Amit Shah?" Pawar asked.
