Sharad Pawar said the Uddhav Thackeray government is dedicated to the farmers' cause.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar today termed the BJP's lacklustre performance in Jharkhand as a fallout of its inability to ensure social justice for people across the country, and cited the Citizenship Amendment Act as a case in point.
"Instead of taking opposition parties into confidence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are trying to mislead the parliament. What happened in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and now Jharkhand proves one thing - the BJP is unable to provide justice to all sections of society," the veteran leader, who was instrumental in forming the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra last month, said.
By 5 pm, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance in Jharkhand was well over the majority mark of 41 while the ruling party hovered around 26 seats. The BJP's Raghubar Das has already conceded defeat.
Mr Pawar said that the controversial law, which aims to make it easier for non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to gain citizenship, is detrimental to the country's interests. "They have left out a particular community (Muslims). This is an attempt to divide society," he added.
For the first time in the country's history, the Citizenship Amendment Act has made religion a criterion for expediting citizenship for migrants. However, it has met considerable resistance with violence erupting in many parts and several states flatly refusing to implement it. The United Nations has also claimed that the law discriminates against Muslims and undermines the country's secular credentials.
Mr Pawar, however, said that he was not very well-informed about the central government's plan to set up a detention centre in Navi Mumbai allegedly to accommodate migrants excluded from the National Register of Citizens. "The Uddhav Thackeray government has not even completed a month. We will enquire into this," he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said at a rally in Delhi on Sunday that no such detention camps exist in India, only to be accused of spreading misinformation by the opposition Congress.
The NCP chief said he was also surprised by PM Modi's claim that there was no plan to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country. "As I recall, even the President had talked about the government's plan to take the NRC initiative nationwide. The President's speech reflects the government's policy, and to say now that there was no discussion on the matter in the cabinet is not right," he added.
(With inputs from PTI)