Will win 225 out of 288 seats in the state: Sharad Pawar
Baramati LS MP Supriya Sule said that Maharashtra is made up of self-respecting people.
3 min read
Former BJP MLA Sudhakar Bhalerao joins NCP (Sharad Pawar) in the presence of party President Sharad Pawar, in Mumbai. (PTI)Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said that the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will win 225 out of 288 seats in the forthcoming assembly polls slated in next three months.
“Out of 288 seats in Maharashtra, the Opposition will win more than 225 seats. It is evident that if the political picture of Maharashtra has to be changed, the hands of the NCP (SP) have to be strengthened,” said Pawar. He was speaking after former BJP MLA Sudhakar Bhalerao from Udgir in Marathwada’s Latur joined the NCP-SP. The united NCP had won Udgir seat in 2019 with sports minister Sanjay Bansode emerging victorious against Bhalerao.
Bhalerao is the second significant political leader in Marathwada joining the NCP-SP in the past two weeks. Earlier this month, former Union minister Suryakanta Patil joined the NCP-SP from the BJP.
“Our colleagues from Udgir and Deolali are here. What is unique about both these places is that they were won by the NCP (SP) in 2019. But, despite the people’s mandate going to the NCP (SP), in both these places, the elected MLAs betrayed their own voters and decided to go in a different direction. People don’t like certain things. You cannot ask for votes on a certain platform and then, after those votes are given, go in a different direction,” he said.
“Maharashtra has fallen into the hands of the wrong people. In the Lok Sabha elections, in 2019, only six Opposition MPs were elected–of which four were NCP (SP) MPs. In 2024, a people’s movement ensured that 31 Opposition MPs were brought to power–and eight out of ten NCP (SP) MPs emerged victorious,” he said.
NCP-SP state unit chief Jayant Patil said, “We are closely watching Marathwada region. We are looking to uproot gaddari (betrayal), to destroy gaddari. We are placing a special responsibility upon you–we expect that you will snatch victory and show the gaddars the right prayaschit (penance) for their gaddari.”
Baramati LS MP Supriya Sule said that Maharashtra is made up of self-respecting people. “The people of Maharashtra have shown that ’50 khokhe, ekdum okay’ can work elsewhere but not here,” she said.
Bhalerao was elected as an MLA from Udgir on a BJP ticket in 2004 and 2014. He was one of the BJP’s senior Dalit leaders and a leading voice of the Matang community, with Udgir being a SC constituency.
This move is seen as a strategic gain for the NCP (SP) in the Marathwada region, which includes eight Lok Sabha constituencies: Nanded, Parbhani, Hingoli, Osmanabad, Latur, Aurangabad, Jalna, and Beed. In the recently concluded elections, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) won seven out of these eight seats.
“I worked for the Matang samaj, Dalit samaj, farmers, farm workers, all the marginalized people of the state. In Maharashtra, I worked as an MLA for 10 years. The government eyes only vote bank in the name of working for the welfare of Dalits,” said Bhalerao.
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