Farmers can dethrone govt, Sharad Pawar tells chief minister

Nagpur: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday hit back at Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for his “Halla Bol” remark against the Congress and NCP, saying that “neglected farming community can throw out your government”.

Mr Fadnavis had threatened to “expose the misdeeds” of Congress and NCP who had launched Halla Bol rally to highlight the “plight” of farmers.

The Opposition has repeatedly criticised the government over the issue of farm loan waiver and adequate prices to the agriculture produce.

Addressing a mammoth rally of opposition at T-point on busy Nagpur-Jabalpur road, Mr Pawar asked the farmers not to pay any bills to the respective authorities and defy the government. Mr Pawar slammed Mr Fadnavis, saying, “We will not cow down by the vindictive attitude of the state government”.

Rajya Sabha opposition leader Gulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, NCP leader Praful Patel, Congress general secretary Mohan Prakash, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, NCP MP Supriya Sule, state NCP president

Sunil Tatkare, Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam, leader of opposition in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, deputy leader Vijay Wadettiwar attended the protest on Tuesday.

Mr Pawar said that a whopping Rs 70,000 crore was released for farmers by the UPA government when he was Union agriculture minister.

“I had personally visited drought affected districts like Yavatmal and Wardha distirct announcement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” said Mr Pawar, who celebrated his birthday 77th birthday on Tuesday.

Mr Azad also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state saying he knows the pulses of people and their problem since he had twice represented people of Washim (Yavatmal) in Lok Sabha.