Ashish Shelar slams Sharad Pawar over 'Pulwama' remark

Attacking NCP chief Sharad Pawar for claiming that only a Pulwama like incident can change people's mood in the state, Ashish Shelar, School Education, Sports, and Youth Welfare Minister of Maharashtra said that Pawar still needs to clarify his stand on the terror attack that took place earlier this year.

"He is a big leader. Maharashtra has seen him spreading political rumours for attaining power," Shelar told ANI here.

"Our soldiers avenged the death of jawans who lost their lives during Pulwama by conducting airstrikes in Pakistan. The whole world stood with us on that incident but why was Sharad Pawar not ready to agree on it. What kind of mentality does it show? People of Maharashtra want to know this from him," he added.

Pawar stoked a controversy on Friday by saying that people's resentment for the incumbent Devendra Fadnavis-led government was such that only a Pulwama type incident can change their minds.

"Before Lok Sabha elections, there was an environment of anger and distress against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, Pulwama attack on CRPF jawans changed the entire scenario," Pawar said during a press conference in Aurangabad.

He added that "People's mind can be changed now (in the state) only with another Pulwama attack like situation."

Pawar also claimed that based on his enquiries on the Pulwama incident, he suspects it was "deliberately orchestrated or Pakistan may be behind it".

"I have worked in Defence. When I talked to some officials during that time, I suspected the attack was deliberately orchestrated or Pakistan may be behind it," he said.

After the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama in February in which 40 paramilitary personnel were killed, the Modi government had carried out airstrikes at a terror base at Balakot in Pakistan.