NCP organises workshop on March 1 to decide road map
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which has a negligible presence in Mumbai, has organised a workshop for party workers from all the 227 wards of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation on March 1. This is to strengthen the ward-level party organisation ahead of the next BMC election slated for 2022. NCP has one legislator and nine corporators in BMC.
NCP city unit chief and Minister of Minority Affairs and Skill Development Nawab Malik told FPJ, ''A ward-wise target has been given for the attendance of the party's active workers for the March 1 workshop. It is true that NCP has little presence in Mumbai. However, it is our effort to spread wings in the city by strengthening the party organisation and reaching out to the voters.'' He informed that NCP chief Sharad Pawar and a couple of party ministers and senior leaders will address the ensuing workshop, wherein a road map for the party's growth will be discussed.
The March 1 workshop is important, especially after party's debacle in the city in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections held last year. The party, which had contested six seats, won only the Mankhurd seat, where Malik defeated the Shiv Sena nominee.
Pawar, in the run up to the assembly poll and after the results were declared, had stressed upon the need to ensure the party’s growth in urban areas, specifically Mumbai and Thane. ''The party will stand with you strongly. But you have to come forward and prove that you are ready to grow the party in this area,” Pawar had told his party leaders. NCP legislator Vidya Chavan, who lost to Shiv Sena nominee Sunil Prabhu in the Dindoshi constituency, said the party will have to take up the issues faced by Mumbaikars, especially due to rapid urbanisation. ''It is important for the party to not only pursue the host of issues faced by Mumbaikars, but make all the efforts at the government and civic body level for an early solution. In addition, the party will have to aggressively reach out to the citizens against the BJP's communal politics and its attempt to polarise the society,'' she noted.