After being almost being reduced to irrelevance in national politics, Sharad Pawar, the NCP supremo has been trying desperately to stay in news and ensure enough seats in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections to keep his party afloat.
Speaking to the media at a press conference in Aurangabad on Friday, the NCP chief stated, “Before the Lok Sabha elections, there was an environment of anger and distress against PM Modi. However, the Pulwama attack against CRPF jawans changed the entire scenario. Now, people’s mind can be changed only with a Pulwama attack-like situation.”
Going further, as per a report in ANI, Pawar stated that after the Pulwama attack in February earlier this year, he had suspected that it might have been orchestrated. “I have worked in defence. I spoke to some officials at that time and suspected that the attack was deliberately orchestrated or Pakistan may be behind it,” claimed Pawar.
He added further that the Balakot airstrikes against Pakistan-based terror camps had boosted the popularity of the Modi government. But Modi’s popularity will not work in Maharashtra as the people are not satisfied with the Fadnavis government.
Pawar further stated that he is working to bring ‘secular forces’ together to take on the BJP. He claimed that the Congress and the NCP have come together and they are trying to bring Bahujan Vikas Aghadi and Samajwadi Party for an alliance too. However, he did not explain that if he thinks the people are against the Fadnavis government, why does he need to bring all these parties into an alliance to contest against it.
Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Congress have both been losing powerful and influential leaders recently to the BJP. Many strong leaders like Congress’ Sachin Ahir, Harshvardhan Patil, and many NCP stalwarts, most notably Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhonsale and Navi Mumbai leader Sandeep Naik had recently left the parties to join the BJP fold.
Sharad Pawar’s recent statements follow a strange pattern from being highly controversial, to incoherent and sometimes downright outrageous. In June, he had claimed that the airstrikes had happened in Kashmir, not Pakistan.
Back in March, he had claimed that he was the one who had suggested carrying out the airstrikes against Pakistan to the airforce. He had even claimed that PM Modi had nothing to do with the decision. It is notable here that as the Home Minister in 1993 during the Mumbai bomb blasts, Sharad Pawar had ‘invented’ the 13th blast just to show that Muslims were the victims too. In reality, there only 12 blasts.
Recently, addressing a special event for the minorities at the NCP headquarters, he had claimed that Pakistan is a happy, hospitable place and it is the BJP government who is spreading lies about it for political gains. Before 2019 elections, he had claimed that EVMs inside polling booths can be ‘controlled’ via towers in the surrounding areas.
