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NCP to contest all 182 seats in Gujarat

Syed Firdaus Ashraff in Bombay

The Nationalist Congress Party would contest all the 182 seats in the upcoming assembly election in Gujarat, party chief Sharad Pawar said on Friday.

Speaking to reporters at a function organised by the NCP to commemorate 100 years of the reservation policy for dalits introduced by Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, Pawar said, "We are planning to tie-up with the party of Chhabildas Mehta, former chief minister of Gujarat, and we hope that we will get support from other quarters also."

Chhabildas Mehta, a former chief minister of Gujarat, quit the Congress party two years back claiming that the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was not taking 'keen interest in the affairs of Gujarat'. He had also alleged that the Congress failed to oppose the Bharatiya Janata Party 'vehemently in the state'. He initially launched a forum, converting it into the Rashtriya Congress Janata Parishad.

Criticising the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his government, Pawar said, "They are playing politics on the fear psychosis of the people and want to win power by any means."

Recalling his visit to Gujarat, he told the audience that when he asked a police officer 'why the people are becoming violent?' the officer replied that 'it was the minority community that was behaving in an unruly fashion'.

"I felt hurt when the officer said that," he said

"Thanks to Shahu Maharaj, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Jyotirao Phule, Maharashtra has more enlightened people, who have not discriminated against communities in such a manner," Pawar said.

"Shahu Maharaj was not a democratically elected leader, but he still had the vision of social equality in those years," Pawar added.

The function was called Samta Din (Equality Day). Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, a NCP member, was also present.

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