Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Mumbai on July 23. The meeting between the two leaders is crucial ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections scheduled later this year.
Pawar discussed issues pertaining to irrigation, milk prices and sugar factories during the meeting, held at the state government guest house Sahyadri in Malabar Hill area, an official said.
The meeting assumes significance as it comes a day after Chief Minister Shinde echoed Union Home minister Amit Shah's remark, calling Pawar the ‘mastermind of corruption’. The CM urged the opposition Maha Vikash Aghadi (MVA) to reflect on their actions.
"They (the opposition) are speaking about corruption. The biggest kingpin of corruption in Indian politics is Sharad Pawar and I have no confusion in that. What will they accuse us of now? If somebody has done the job of institutionalising corruption, Sharad Pawar, it is you," Shah said while addressing BJP workers and supporters at a conclave in Pune.
Reacting to Amit Shah's remarks, Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule said that she laughed at the statement considering that he is part of the same government who had presented the Padma Vibhushan to the NCP(SCP) supremo. Sule said that 90 per cent of people accused of corruption by the BJP are now part of the BJP.
"I laughed hearing this because it was the same Modi government which Amit Shah ji is also part of, not the NDA government now but the previous Modi government that awarded Sharad Pawar with Padma Vibhushan," Sule said while speaking to ANI on Sunday.
Maharashtra is going to polls in October-November. Last week, NCP chief Sharad Pawar sounded a poll bugle and said that the opposition MVA will comfortably win the election to the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.
The meeting also comes days after four leaders of Ajit Pawar-led NCP quit. Earlier, Sharad Pawar said that those who wanted to "weaken" his party would not be taken in, but he would accept leaders who would not "hurt" the party's image.
“Those who wanted to weaken the party would not be taken in. But those leaders who would help strengthen the organization and not hurt the image of the party would be taken in,” Pawar had said.
