MUMBAI: In the run-up to the November 20 Maharashtra Assembly elections, former union minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday alleged that after the BJP came to power in 2022, it has halted the state’s growth leading to its decline in ranking from first to sixth in terms of development and industrial growth.
While campaigning for his party’s candidate in Nagpur, Pawar claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has treated Maharashtra unfairly. “Since the BJP came to power in the state, Maharashtra’s growth has stopped. As a result, it has fallen from being the number one state to the sixth position in development and industrial growth. Additionally, the state is experiencing a law and order crisis.
In the past six months alone, over 630 women have gone missing in the Nagpur region, highlighting significant concerns about women’s safety in BJP-ruled states.
Furthermore, farmer suicides have increased dramatically,” said the former agriculture minister.
In addition, the majority of development and job-generating projects have been shifted from Maharashtra to Gujarat, leading to increased unemployment in Maharashtra, he alleged. “We need to dethrone a government that is indifferent to the interests of our state. What we require now is a government that will protect the interests of local people,” he stated.
Promising to honor every commitment made by the INDIA bloc, the NCP chief emphasized that all the claims in their manifesto will be fulfilled once they win the election and return to power. “We are not like the BJP, which makes grand promises only to break them after winning the election. This is what they refer to as ‘jumla,’ and the saffron party excels at it.
We are different, we do not retract our promises once made, unlike the BJP. The Maha Vikas Aghadi has given five guarantees that they will fulfill, come what may,” Pawar asserted. The Congress, NCP (SP), Shiv Sena (UBT), CPI(M), SP and other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies have come together to provide an alternative to the people, he said.
Uddhav releases manifesto
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray released his party’s manifesto for Maharashtra state assembly election where he promised to stabilise the essential commodity prices, pension for old citizens, upto `25 lakh health insurance among others. The manifesto had a tag line, “Maharashtra is my family, my family my responsibility” where Thackeray has mentioned as family chief reminding one of his work