Pawar praises RSS, wants NCP workers to learn its 'perseverance'

NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has praised the RSS for dedication to its ideology and urged his party to create a worker base with commitment to progressive thoughts of Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule, BR Ambedkar and political stalwart Yeshwantrao Chavan. Addressing party workers at a meeting in south Mumbai on Thursday, the former Union minister noted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has committed cadres who show unwavering loyalty to the Hindutva organisation's ideology and do not deviate from their path at any cost.
 Reflecting on the Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s severe drubbing in the November assembly polls in Maharashtra, he said, “We became complacent after the Lok Sabha election success, while the ruling alliance (BJP-led Mahayuti) took immediate steps to contain its reverses in the parliamentary polls.” “We failed to communicate to the OBCs (a major vote bank) what we did for their uplift,” the former CM noted.
He stressed the need for social engineering to end the caste divide in Marathwada, the epicentre of the Maratha quota movement, especially after the death of a Dalit man in judicial custody in Parbhani district and the brutal murder of a village sarpanch in Beed district.
“Such a situation prevailed even during the Marathwada university renaming controversy, but I went to the university and interacted with all stakeholders," recalled Pawar, who was the Maharashtra CM at the time. Similar steps for engaging with people and social engineering strategy were needed now, he asserted. Pawar declared that 50 per cent of the tickets will be allotted by his party to new faces for upcoming local bodies elections in the state.He also indicated that the organisation will be overhauled to strengthen the party. The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) is a key constituent of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).