Modi Refers to Sharad Pawar As Wandering Soul Spoiling Things for Everyone

 Mumbai: Taking a potshot at NCP founder Sharad Pawar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that Maharashtra has been unstable for a long period because of “wandering souls” in the state politics. In an obvious reference to Mr. Pawar, the PM said this was started by a “senior leader” 45 years ago to fulfill his personal ambition.

Mr. Pawar broke away from the Congress (U) in 1978 to form a government with the support of Janata Party. He became the youngest Maharashtra chief minister at the age of 38.

Referring to the 1978 political developments, Mr Modi said, “There are some wandering souls whose wishes remain unfulfilled and therefore they start spoiling things for others. Maharashtra has also become the victim of these wandering souls. This game was started 45 years ago by a senior leader to achieve his personal ambition.”

The PM further said that Maharashtra has remained unstable since 1978. He was referring to the fact that after 1978, no chief minister except for BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis has remained in office for five years.

“This soul destabilises not only the opposition parties, but also its own party and its own family,” he said.

Mr. Modi alleged that “the wandering soul” tried to destabilse Shiv Sena-BJP government that was in power from 1995 to 1999 and disregarded people’s mandate in 2019.

Interestingly, Mr. Modi’s comments were made in presence of Ajit Pawar and his wife Sunetra who is contesting the Baramati Lok Sabha seat against Supriya Sule.

The rally was organised for BJP’s Pune candidate Murlidhar Mohol, Sunetra Pawar, NCP candidate for Shirur seat Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil and Shrirang Barane of Shiv Sena who is contesting the Maval seat.

It was Mr. Modi’s third Maharashtra rally in the day. Earlier, he held election rallies in Satara and Solapur for Udayanraje Bhosale and Ram Satpute respectively.

In all three rallies, Mr. Modi criticised the Congress for allegedly providing reservation to the Muslim community in the OBC category. He said he will not allow religion based reservation in the country as long as he is alive.

The PM also alleged that the INDIA bloc parties are misusing social media and technology to spread fake videos of BJP leaders including himself and Amit Shah.