BJP lost as Muslims did not vote for it in assembly poll: Pawar
The Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party lost power after the assembly election in Maharashtra last year, as Muslims did not vote for it. ''Minorities vote for parties which can defeat the BJP. During elections, the minorities decide whom to defeat. This is the reason for the change of guard in the state,'' Pawar said at the party's minority cell meeting.
His statement comes three days after a video of Maharashtra minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan purportedly saying that his party joined the Shiv Sena-led government at the 'insistence' of the 'Muslim community', to stop the BJP from returning to power. Chavan defended his statement saying that he had spoken the truth, even as the BJP slammed the Congress.
Pawar led a scathing attack against the BJP saying, the saffron party was working to divide the society. He said the BJP should not be voted back to power in the country. ''We should stand together. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh kept them away, now Delhi will also do the same. People
We should stand together. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh kept them away, now Delhi will also do the same. People are telling us that Maharashtra showed the way.
–SHARAD PAWAR
are telling us that Maharashtra showed the way," he opined.
''The BJP is in power and it is the responsibility of the leadership to take all sections of the society together. People in power have made easy way for Hindus, Christian and Sikhs but not for Muslims. Because of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Population Register, certain minorities will get ignored. We have different communities in India,'' said Pawar.
Further, said Pawar, the Banjara community, which is nomadic, are always looking for work in one place or the other. ''How will they prove their citizenship? They don't have any records, their names are not on the voting list," he added.
Pawar's statement is crucial as his party has launched fresh efforts to reach out to the minorities in a bid to consolidate its presence in the state. His meeting with the minority cell is to decide on a roadmap in this regard.
Already the NCP has launched a massive exercise to lure Dalits and backward classes being wooed by the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar, who is the deputy chief minister, separately visited the site of the Dr BR Ambedkar memorial at the Indu Mills compound in Dadar.