18 June,2024 07:47 PM IST | Pune | mid-day online correspondent
Sharad Pawar. File Pic
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP - SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said that in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 held recently, the voters of Maharashtra gave out a message across the country that the atmosphere in the state was changing, reported the PTI.
Sharad Pawar made the statement while interacting with farmers at Nimbut village in Baramati tehsil.
"In the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, we (NCP-SP) contested only 10 seats. But by electing eight out of these 10 candidates, the people of the state sent out a message across the country that the atmosphere of the state is changing," he said, according to the PTI.
Sharad Pawar said that though the reins of the state were in the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it became clear to him by judging the sentiments of the people during the poll campaign that a different result was in the offing.
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"Those in power (in the state) lost 31 seats and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) got success on that many seats," he said.
The MVA comprises of the Shiv Sena (UBT), the NCP (SP) and the Congress.
In the just concluded Lok Sabha polls, Parner MLA Nilesh Lanke had switched from the Ajit Pawar faction to the one headed by Sharad Pawar and won from Ahmednagar defeating sitting BJP MP Sujay Vikhe Patil.
Similarly, Bajrang Sonawane also left the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and contested the Lok Sabha polls from Beed on an NCP (SP) ticket. He defeated former state minister and senior BJP leader Pankaja Munde.
On the other hand, the BJP's tally in the state came down from 23 in the 2019 general elections to nine this time, while the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP had to be contend with seven and one wins, respectively.
In Maharashtra, which has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress led with 13 wins, followed by nine for the Shiv Sena (UBT) and eight for the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).
"After voters performed their responsibility, it is now our responsibility to use the power to address the farm-related and other raging issues like that of water scarcity," Sharad Pawar added, as per the PTI.
The former union minister and veteran politician has written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, seeking a meeting to address the drought-like situation in Purandar, Baramati, Indapur and Daund tehsils of Pune district.
In the letter dated June 16, which he posted on a micro-blogging site on Monday, Sharad Pawar said the state government had undertaken irrigation schemes in the region to mitigate the drought-like situation but problems were found in their implementation when he visited some of these areas recently.
(with PTI inputs)
