Pawar Sr has lost credibility: Mungantiwar

Nagpur: Senior BJP neta and state cabinet minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the statewide tours planned by Sharad Pawar won’t have any political impact as “people know the truth”. Mungantiwar was responding to queries about tours announced by Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray. He said that attempts to turn the public opinion is a bit too late. “For both these leaders I have immense sympathy because they need to do a lot of introspection. Instead of criticizing BJP, had they focussed on ensuring that their party cadres and public representatives stay together as a cohesive unit, then things would have been different,” Mungantiwar said.He added that there was no logic in blaming BJP. “What has BJP done? We are only focussing on working for the development of the nation,” said Mungantiwar. The forest minister said that the senior Pawar ‘does not have the right’ to blame anyone for rebellion. “He backstabbed Vasant Dada Patil, insulted Rajiv Gandhi, planned a political coup when PV Narsimha Rao was PM. As you sow, so shall you reap,” said Mungantiwar. He said the planned political tours of Pawar and Thackeray come too late in the day. “There is no way they can rebuild the organization because people are aware that only hatred of Modi is in their hearts,” said Mungantiwar and added, “And once you (Pawar) go on tour, then people must also be told about the thousands of farmers suicides which happened during your tenure as (Union) agriculture minister.” Later in the day, DyCM minister Devendra Fadnavis too had a few tongue-in-cheek remarks. While launching a poems book written by Dr Upendra Kothekar, Fadnavis said, “I too had once recited few lines from a poem, ‘mi punha yein’ (I’ll be back). But little did I realize that so many obstacles will be there to come back.”