10 June,2024 01:26 PM IST | Pune | mid-day online correspondent
Sharad Pawar/ File Pic
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar claimed on Monday that the recent Lok Sabha Election Results 2024 show that the people chose to prevent power from being consolidated in the hands of one or two persons.
Addressing party workers in Pune on the NCP's 25th anniversary, Pawar stated that the BJP would have struggled to win the majority of 272 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha without the help of partners such as Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party.
Pawar underlined that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won 293 seats, but the BJP's numbers had dropped from five years earlier, indicating a smaller majority in Parliament. He pointed out that the administration had been governed by only one or two people, with a concentration on centralising power.
He emphasised that the people's vote was a move to decentralise power, signalling the beginning of a shift towards a broader administrative approach.
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"The government's reins are in the hands of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi but looking at the Lok Sabha Election Results 2024, the people's mandate is not of their convenience. Compared to the seats they won five years ago, their numbers have reduced this time. Their strength and majority in Parliament have reduced," he said. Pawar added, "Had they not received the support of JD(U), and Telugu Desam Party and other allies in Andhra Pradesh, it would have been difficult for them to achieve the majority mark."
"In the last five years, only one or two persons ran the government as per their will and they did not think about the country from a broader perspective and emphasised the centralisation of power. But fortunately, the people of the country, anticipating the situation ahead, voted in a way to put a check on power being in the hands of one or two persons," he said.
He added, "Though there has not been a complete decentralisation of power, a process has begun of having an administration which will go on the path of decentralisation of power."
During the occasion, Pawar also exhorted NCP members to prepare for the impending Maharashtra assembly elections, expressing confidence that control in the state will soon be theirs.
On the party's founding day, Pawar hoisted the NCP flag in the presence of NCP (SP) MP from Baramati and daughter Supriya Sule, as well as other leaders and workers.
"In the last 25 years, we worked towards spreading the party's ideology and we will take the party ahead with all our might. Now it is my and your collective responsibility to work and aim for the state assembly elections so that after the poll results, power will be in your hands and we will ensure the use of power will be for the common people and those who are marginalised," the NCP founder said.
The NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar in 1999 after breaking from the Congress, had internal divisions last year when Ajit Pawar and other MLAs joined the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition. In February, the Election Commission accepted the Ajit Pawar side as the legitimate NCP and assigned them the party emblem, while the Sharad Pawar faction obtained a new symbol to contest future elections.
