"Won't rest till we retain power in Maharashtra": Sharad Pawar

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 1 (ANI): Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) supremo Sharad Pawar declared his commitment to regaining power in Maharashtra, vowing to work without rest in the next two months in the run-up to the upcoming Assembly elections.
Speaking at the Yuva Sanvad program in Ghatkopar West, Mumbai, on Sunday, Pawar also took on the state and central administration and claimed that there is unrest among people in the country and in the state.
"I assure you that we will not rest until we sit in power in Maharashtra within the next two months. Wherever I go in the country, I see unrest among the people," he said.
The state will witness elections to the 288-member legislative assembly possibly later this year as the tenure of the current government is ending in 2024. The Election Commission of India is yet to announce the dates.
Recalling the works undertaken during his tenure as Union Minister in the previous Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, Pawar said, "I remember when I took over the responsibility of agriculture, I took an oath and came home, and the officers brought the first file in front of me. The country's food grain stock had decreased, and I was very restless. The farmer is the backbone of the world, and in our country, we had to import food grains from other countries, but later India became the country that produced the most wheat."
He also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the recent Shivaji statue collapse in Maharashtra.
"These rulers are not for your benefit. Narendra Modi says that my relationship with Sharad Pawar is good, he even said that I came holding Pawar Saheb's finger, but now I'm worried about my finger in the current situation. Who came for the inauguration of that statue? Modi... Wherever his hand touches, something goes wrong," he said.
A 35-foot-tall statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Rajkot Fort in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district collapsed on August 26. Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier said he bow his head and apologise to the people of Maharashtra who were hurt by the incident.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the state government is taking decisions on a war footing for the reconstruction of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and two committees have been formed, including that to investigate the collapse of the statue in the Malvan area of the state. (ANI)