Hardcore Sainiks still have faith in Uddhav: Pawar

Mumbai: NCP president Sharad Pawar on Sunday said it’s a fact that a section of the legislators and MPs have joined hands with Eknath Shinde, but the grassroots level workers are still with Uddhav Thackeray. “Some have left, but my information is that hardcore Shiv Sainiks still have faith in the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, they will never change their loyalty,” said Pawar.
He said the MVA constituents will contest the Lok Sabha and assembly elections together. After the 2019 assembly polls, though BJP had emerged as the single-largest party, Pawar had played a crucial role in keeping the BJP out of power by taking a lead in the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress. Consequently, Uddhav Thackeray was installed as the CM. Later, Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis succeeded in engineering defections in Shiv Sena, following which Shinde was elected as the CM.
On the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute, Pawar said in the recent past, Ekanth Shinde had convened an all-party meeting to seek opinion of leading politicians. “Currently, the case is pending before the apex court. I am sure, the state will engage the services of leading lawyer Harish Salve to present a case. We should hire a team of legal experts and ensure that justice is done to Maharashtra,” Pawar said.
When asked about caste-based census, Pawar said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar ignored BJP’s opposition to the proposal and launched caste-based census from Sunday. “We have been demanding a caste-based census for a long time. Only caste-based census will help us know the economic status of smaller sections of the society,” he said.