NCP chief Sharad Pawar blames 'wrong leadership' for protest outside his house

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NCP president Sharad Pawar on Friday ascribed the sudden protest by striking MSRTC employees outside his residence here to the 'unwise' leadership.

The Nationalist Congress Party was with the striking workers of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation but not with their leadership, he said in a video shared by his party hours after the protest outside his bungalow in south Mumbai.

"One need not be surprised by what happened here. If the leader is not wise, it has its effect on the workers. We saw its illustration here," Pawar said.

"We are with them (the workers). But not with the wrong leadership. It is our responsibility to oppose if someone is showing them the wrong path," he added.

Differences of opinion have existed in Maharashtra's politics but the state never espoused the tradition of taking extreme positions, he said.

"What was being conveyed to the MSRTC workers through the protest for the past some days does not behove (Maharashtra)," Pawar added.

The NCP and MSRTC employees enjoyed a "strong bond", and he did not miss any of their plenary meets in the past 40-50 years, the former Maharashtra chief minister said.

In the past, he always made efforts to solve their problems, but "this time, a wrong path was shown and its repercussion was visible here," Pawar said.

MSRTC employees have stopped work "for no reason" for the past few months and it led to their families suffering financial problems, he said.

"Unfortunately, some people had to take the extreme step such as suicide. The leadership which creates an atmosphere conducive to such extreme steps is responsible for the suicides," he said, adding that the protesters targeted him out of frustration.

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