File photo: NCP leader Ajit Pawar
Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today said a decision about when to hold the meeting on seat-sharing for Maharashtra Assembly polls will be taken after consulting state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre.
Addressing party workers, Pawar, however, reiterated that the NCP was ready to go it alone. "Party workers should be ready to contest all 288 seats," he said.
"Do not lose the confidence of people, otherwise you will face the same situation as the MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) in Nashik," he said.
Talking about the performance of the Congress-NCP government in the state, Pawar, who holds the power portfolio among others, claimed there was no load-shedding in the state.
The NCP leader stated that credit for the government's recent decision to introduce reservations for Muslims and Marathas should go to party chief Sharad Pawar.
He hit out at the Shiv Sena for opposing the nuclear power project in Jaitapur in coastal Ratnagiri, saying, "Nuclear energy is the need of the time".
On the contentious issue of toll levy on state roads, Mr Pawar said, "We have already shut down 44 toll plazas; more plazas will be shut in the coming days. There is a need to shut all the toll plazas in the Thane district."
In the wake of the party's disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha elections, Mr Pawar sought to cheer up the workers by reminding them that the party did well, without any alliance, in the 1999 Assembly elections when it did not even have an official symbol.
"Now we will secure more seats. Party's performance depends on the efforts of workers," he said.