Rout: Shinde ‘blames’ NCP

Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today hinted that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s refusal to campai...

Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today hinted that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s refusal to campaign for the Congress candidate in Solapur was one of the factors that had cost the party the seat. Shinde, who was summoned by party president Sonia Gandhi today, said: ‘‘I had asked Pawar to come and campaign formally. I knew he would not come. There were some problems but I cannot specify them.’’ The Chief Minister added that ‘‘if he (Pawar) had campaigned, it would have definitely had an impact on the results.’’

The Congress believes that the BJP-Shiv Sena candidate won with a massive margin because of the shift of the Maratha votes away from the party, which could have been reversed if Pawar, a Maratha, had campaigned for the party.

The fact that the winning candidate is the brother of an NCP Minister in the Shinde Cabinet has added to the doubts within the party about the NCP’s conflict of interest.

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Shinde, while taking responsibility for the defeat, today ruled out he would resign for the debacle. AICC in-charge of Maharashtra Vayalar Ravi also indicated that the party was in the process of analysing the defeat and ‘‘not for identifying scapegoats”.

Sonia, after the 40-minute meeting with Shinde, directed him to give a more detailed explanation on what went wrong in a seat that had been vacated by the Chief Minister himself. She also asked him to provide the data on how many voters of various communities voted at every booth. Shinde is said to have argued with the high command that Solapur was never a Congress bastion and the party held it alternately between 1996, 1998, 1999 and now.

Later, Shinde said: ‘‘I told the party high command and told them the BJP-Shiv Sena candidate is the brother of NCP Minister Vijay Sinh Mohite-Patil, besides being a former minister himself.’’ Asked on whether he feels the NCP Minster should be dropped, Shinde said, ‘‘It is all up to Pawar.’’

Yogi Adityanath, Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University, police lathicharge, police lathicharge students, Indian express news, current affairs

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