Pawar punch for Congress

Calls for close review of assembly poll outcome and revise strategy

Nationalist Congress Party chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Monday blamed his alliance partner, the Congress, for its poor performance in the Assembly polls.

In his blog, Pawar said while the Congress had lost much ground in the Assembly elections held in Delhi and four states, the United Progressive Alliance too needed to think over the outcome seriously.

He also said people wanted result-oriented, strong and decisive leaders, not weak rulers. The leaders should be those who would formulate policies and programmes for the poor and implement them with firmness, he said.

“If a leader can be confident and decisive about his people-oriented policies, then he will not have to contend with such new power centres. The outcome of the recent polls in four states have raised questions that require serious thinking from not only the Congress, but the rest of us too. The youth played a big role in these polls that led to the Congress’s defeat,” said Pawar.

New voter played a big role in these elections who wanted a change and parties that had the capability to bring about this change have been elected. 

 

To drive home point, Pawar lauded late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for being strong and decisive. "She took bold decisions such as nationalization of banks or ending Privy purses, which she implemented with conviction and firmness. During her time such elements that has no connect with the ground reality never surfaced. Unlike today, that whole class of people, who are always willing to give their free advice on every matter, was absent then.  Such is the clout of these free advisors, that people from the media as well as the government fall prey to them and start believing that the opinions of these advisors is that of the people. We need to think about this too," he added. Pawar's obvious attack was against Congress president Sonia Gandhi led National Advisory Council comprising members of NGOs and retired bureaucrats.

 

Further,  Pawar observed that of late weak leadership at various level has given a rise to bunch of pseudo 'activist' who has no connect with ground reality. "Not only media but also people in government get influenced by these people. They come up with unrealistic ideas and impression gets created that they are representing people's feelings which is not true," he added.

Pawar praised Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivaj Singh Chauhan for their policies in the field of agriculture which have benefitted BJP apart from many other factors.

 

On Aam Admi Party's victory, Pawar  said the unfortunate Nirbhaya Rape incident made the youth restless and thus most of them joined AAP. The upper middle class that normally abstains from voting has also voted this time. But the poor and lower class proved to be a bigger vote bank for AAP. They believed the Broom (AAP’s symbol) needs to be given a chance. 

ALSO READ: Sharad Pawar's blogpost: People need strong, decisive, result-oriented leaders