NCP Chief Sharad Pawar.
Credit: PTI Photo
Pune: NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said that in the Lok Sabha polls held recently, the voters of Maharashtra gave out a message across the country that the atmosphere in the state was changing.
Pawar made the statement while interacting with farmers at Nimbut village in Baramati tehsil.
"In the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, we (NCP-SP) contested only 10 seats. But by electing eight out of these 10 candidates, the people of the state sent out a message across the country that the atmosphere of the state is changing," he said.
He said that though the reins of the state were in the hands of the BJP, it became clear to him by judging the sentiments of the people during the poll campaign that a different result was in the offing.
"Those in power (in the state) lost 31 seats and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) got success on that many seats," he said.
"After voters performed their responsibility, it is now our responsibility to use the power to address the farm-related and other raging issues like that of water scarcity," Pawar added.
The veteran politician has written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, seeking a meeting to address the drought-like situation in Purandar, Baramati, Indapur and Daund tehsils of Pune district.
In the letter dated June 16, which he posted on a micro-blogging site on Monday, Pawar said the state government had undertaken irrigation schemes in the region to mitigate the drought-like situation but problems were found in their implementation when he visited some of these areas recently.