Sharad Pawar, Thackeray, Digvijaya to address public meeting on Dec 12

NCP founder Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh will address a public meeting on the culmination of the Nationalist Congress Party's Yuva Sangharsh Yatra' here on December 12, Maharashtra ex-home minister Anil Deshmukh said on Wednesday.

The three leaders will address the public event at the Zero Mile area in Nagpur, said Deshmukh, who belongs to the NCP's Sharad Pawar faction.

The yatra led by NCP MLA Rohit Pawar, who represents the Karjat Jamkhed assembly constituency, started on October 24 from Pune to highlight various issues, including the ones faced by youths, in Maharashtra. The foot march is about 120 km from Nagpur, said the MLA on X on Wednesday.

It will culminate in Nagpur, after covering more than 800 km, during the Winter Session of the state legislature.

While Sharad Pawar, Thackeray and Singh will be prominently present during the public meeting in Nagpur on December 12, leaders from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising NCP, Sena (UBT) and Congress, will also be invited, he said. The NCP founder will turn 83 that day.

Deshmukh said NCP will raise the issue of pending compensation to farmers, who had suffered crop losses due to unseasonal rains in the past, and demand higher minimum support price (MSP) for cotton and soybean. A party delegation will meet government authorities with the demands, he said.

Deshmukh also said that many of the MLAs with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar did not go to that camp willingly. They will return to the Sharad Pawar group soon, he asserted.

The NCP split in July after Ajit Pawar and eight senior leaders aligned with the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena to become a part of the government.

Deshmukh also expressed confidence that MVA will win the assembly elections whenever it is held and will return to power in the state. The MVA government led by Thackeray fell last year after a rebellion by Shinde, who later joined hands with the BJP to become the CM.