Communal divide being created, Pawar warns at YB Chavan memorial

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said there was a need to fight forces creating communal divide in Maharashtra and the country.

Addressing NCP workers and supporters in Karad a day after Ajit Pawar led a vertical split in the party to become the deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-led government, Sharad Pawar also said "some of our people fell prey to BJP's tactics to break other parties."

Sharad Pawar visited the memorial of his mentor and Maharashtra's first chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan in Karad and paid floral tributes to him.

The 82-year-old leader's visit to late Chavan's memorial 'Pritisangam' on the occasion of Guru Purnima is being seen as a show of strength by him, a day after his nephew Ajit Pawar led a vertical split in the NCP.

"Attempts are being made to create communal divide in Maharashtra and the country. We need to fight forces that create fear among peace-loving citizens," he said.

"We need to protect democracy in the country," he added.

The NCP chief also said a "wrong kind of tendency" was rearing its head and the same tendency attempted to break the party in the state which was working on democratic principles.

"The objective behind this is to take the country's affairs ahead with the help of these communal ideologies, and the same tendency took the same approach to turn things upside down in the state. Unfortunately, some of our colleagues fell prey to these tactics," he said.

The common man from Maharashtra, the land of Shahu Maharaj, Phule and Ambedkar, will show the tendencies which are instrumental in breaking the other parties their right place, he said.

"In the next few months, we will get an opportunity to go to the people and with their help, we will push these tendencies aside and once again we will create a system that will work in the interest of the common people," he said.

The NCP has taken a decision to create a consensus in the state and the start of that mission has started from Karad, where the memorial of Yashwantrao Chavan is located, on the occasion of Guru Purnima, he said.

Sharad Pawar said there was a time when they came together as Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray and formed a government, but some people, by "hook or crook", toppled the government.

"It is not just happening in Maharashtra, but they are doing it in other states also. The Madhya Pradesh government, led by (Congress leader) Kamal Nath, was toppled in a similar manner and the government, which encouraged communalism came into existence," he said.

Earlier, Sharad Pawar left from Pune for Karad on Monday morning and stopped along the way to meet supporters who lined up on the roadside to greet him and extend support to him.

In Karad, he was welcomed by thousands of supporters and local NCP MLA Balasaheb Patil.

NCP's Satara Lok Sabha member Shriniwas Patil and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, who hails from Karad, were also present.