Fadnavis, Pawar pay tributes to Gandhi on birth anniversary

Leaders cutting across party lines in Maharashtra paid glowing tributes Tuesday to Mahatma Gandhi on his 149th birth anniversary.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said taking inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi's thoughts and vision and walking on the path shown by him is a real tribute to him.

He urged people to take a pledge to act on Gandhi's principles.

"From clean mind to clean nation...taking inspiration from Bapu's thoughts and vision and walking on the path shown by him is a real tribute to him," he said in a tweet.

"Gandhiji taught us self discipline, swachhata, rural devpt&one government is working hard all for this is under leadership of Hon @narendramodi ji. This is real tribute to Gandhi ji!" he said in another tweet.

Fadnavis said the Father of the Nation had given the people a model for a 'New India' and that Maharashtra was contributing "a lot" by leading the cleanliness campaign.

He also took part in a foot march along with other party leaders this morning in Maharashtra's Nagpur city.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said there was a need to embrace Gandhi's thoughts to cleanse the thinking of people as they clean the country ahead of the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.

"We will need to stand firmly to ensure Gandhi's thoughts remain lit. Tributes to Bapu," Pawar said on Twitter.

Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan also paid tributes to Gandhi and tweeted his picture.

His NCP counterpart Jayant Patil said pronouncing Mahatma Gandhi's name itself fills one with moral strength.

"Gandhi was not only a leader of freedom struggle, but also a great saint who knew the soul of the nation. Gandhi + Ambedkar + Nehru = India," Patil tweeted.