Challenge to fight powers inciting social and communal divide: Pawar

Nationalist Congress party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Sunday said the challenge before everyone is to fight powers that are deliberately inciting social and communal divide in the country.

The results of the recently held Assembly elections in Karnataka show the situation is gradually changing, Pawar said at an event in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district.

If the working class remains strong and united, what was seen in the Karnataka Assembly polls can be replicated elsewhere in the country as well, he said.

In the recent Assembly elections in Karnataka, the Congress returned to power after a gap of five years by defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

'Some powers ruling the country are taking it backwards by inciting tensions on caste and religious lines in society. They are using power not for the welfare of people, but to create divisions among them,' Pawar alleged.

The challenge is to fight against these powers, otherwise the common man will be destroyed, the NCP chief said.

'Despite Ahmednagar being a progressive district, there were social tensions in Shevgaon recently,' he noted.

The Karnataka Assembly poll results show the situation is gradually changing, Pawar said.

'A government of the common man has taken charge in Karnataka. Of the one lakh people who attended the swearing-in ceremony (of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah) yesterday, 70 per cent were youth belonging to different strata of the society. The new chief minister works to protect interests of the weaker sections while taking everyone along,' he said.

If the working class remains strong and united, what was seen in the Karnataka Assembly elections can be replicated elsewhere in the country as well, Pawar said.