Maharashtra State Assembly Elections: NCP Sharad Pawar Faction Begins Preparations

After receiving great success in Loksabha elections, NCP Sharad Chandra Pawar party has started its preparation seriously for the upcoming state assembly election. Nishtavan Samvad Daura (Loyal Outreach Tour)  has already been launched by NCP (SP) State president Jayant Patil. Now, Patil and Shirur MP Amol Kolhe  have released a book on the “Kale Karname” of the Mahayuti in Mumbai, highlighting 10 failures of the ruling alliance in Maharashtra while launching a scathing attack on misgovernance and corruption in the state. 

Jayant Patil takes on Mahayuti Govt

While addressing speech Jayant Patil strongly attacked Mahayuti government.  “This is not a triple engine sarkar, this is a trouble engine sarkar,” said Jayant Patil, while taking a dig at infighting within the Mahayuti to demand that a “Ladki Khurchi” not a “Ladki Bahin” Yojana should be launched in the state to meet the demands of all those aspiring to be Chief Minister.

Hitting out at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Patil said, “The Chief Minister goes to Davos, talks about 4 lakh crores of investment, but these are just slogans. How much of that investment has come into Maharashtra? How many jobs have been created?”

The book, which features a black balloon with three crows perched on it, was referred to by Amol Kolhe as a “reinvention of Gandhi ji’s teen bandar in Maharashtra.”  While the original monkeys were centered around “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” the crows in Maharashtra represented a new ideology of not seeing, not hearing, and not talking about any positive work in the state. 

Party manifesto for Vidhan Sabha Elections

Simultaneously, a campaign to “crowdsource” suggestions for the party’s manifesto for the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections was launched by party leaders. The “My Dream Maharashtra” campaign, which will run from 19 July to 15 August, will bring together suggestions from ordinary citizens across the state that the party has promised to consider after the Maha Vikas Aghadi comes to power. The manifesto campaign will have three competitions - two digital, involving reels and posters, and one physical in zillas across Maharashtra - that will ask the youth how they think the state should be rebuilt.

Notably, the NCP (SP) is the first party to start its manifesto campaign in the state and is taking an innovative crowdsourcing approach to attract voters - especially amongst the youth - to its political platform. After its remarkable success in the Lok Sabha elections, where the party emerged as the one with the highest strike rate in the state, winning 8 out of the 10 seats it contested, the NCP (SP) has begun preparations to replicate this success in the assembly elections.