In Maharashtra, there are ongoing attempts to dissuade NCP leader Sharad Pawar from going to a ceremony where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be given the Lokmanya Tilak Award on August 1.
Pawar will meet with a team from a number of political parties, including his own, on Sunday.
A supporter of the NCP, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), has said that Pawar’s choice “does not look appropriate.”
According to The Indian Express, Pawar will not only go on stage with PM Modi but will also present him with the award during the event at the S P College grounds.
According to the source, members of the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UUBT), the Aam Aadmi Party, and the CPI(M) would be part of the team headed by socialist leader Baba Adhav that will meet with Pawar.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) was unambiguous in its position that Pawar should not be seen congratulating Modi, unlike to the Congress, which is also allied with the NCP in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and has said that the NCP president has the discretion to attend the ceremony or not.
Sanjay Raut, the party’s spokesperson, was quoted as saying, “It does not look appropriate for the NCP chief to attend the event and bestow the honour on the Prime Minister when the Prime Minister is calling the constituents of INDIA all kinds of names and when he and his party have wrecked the NCP.”
“The BJP has not only split the NCP in two, but the PM has labeled the NCP as a corrupt party,” said Raut. How can the NCP’s party leader congratulate the Prime Minister if the NCP has endured such hardship? Pawar will damage his own reputation and image by doing so. Pawar should, in my opinion, abstain from the event.
Pawar would convey the wrong message, according to Raut, if he attended the function. The public, NCP employees, and supporters will get confused as a result. It would imply that Ajit Pawar has the NCP national president’s backing, he remarked.
