Be ready to contest all Assembly seats, Ajit tells NCP workers

Senior NCP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today said decision as to when to hold the meeting on seat-sharing for Maharashtra Assembly polls will be taken after consulting the state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre.
Addressing the party workers here, Pawar, however, reiterated that NCP was ready to go it alone. "Party workers should be ready to contest all the 288 seats," he said.
"Do not lose the confidence of people, otherwise you will face the same situation as MNS in Nashik," he said.
Talking about the performance of the Congress-NCP government in the state, Pawar, who holds the power portfolio among others, claimed there was no load-shedding in the state.

The NCP leader stated that credit for government's recent decision to introduce reservations for Muslims and Marathas should go to the party chief Sharad Pawar.
He hit out at Shiv Sena for opposing the nuclear power project in Jaitapur in coastal Ratnagiri, saying that "nuclear energy is the need of the time".

On the contentious issue of toll levy on state roads, Pawar said, "We have already shut down 44 toll plazas, more plazas will be shut in the coming days. There is a need to shut all the toll plazas in the Thane district."
In the wake of the party's disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha elections, Pawar sought to cheer up the workers by reminding them that the party did well, without any alliance, in 1999 Assembly elections when it did not even have an official symbol.

"Now we will secure more seats. Party's performance depends on the efforts of workers," he said.