Congress, Thackeray Faction of Sena uneasy as Pawar set to give award to Modi today

Congress and the Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena have disapproved of Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar handing over Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Lokmanya Tilak National Award at a meeting in Pune on Tuesday. The MVA constituents said that it would send the wrong message to the people. Modi's BJP had weaned away a faction of NCP recently.

Despite the disapproval of allies, Pawar would attend the event. Tilak's family had contacted Pawar three months back and requested him to facilitate the PM's participation in the event. Pawar faction leaders said that he may make a speech on democracy and hit out at BJP and this would balance the criticism for attending the event.

"People are uneasy; they are unhappy with whatever is happening in the country. If a MVA leader or a leader of INDIA gives away an award, then it would create doubts in people's minds. Sharad Pawar is an experienced leader, and we don't need to tell him about this," Thackeray faction MP Sanjay Raut told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.


The 'confusion' relates to speculation that Sharad Pawar would endorse his nephew and take the rest of NCP to NDA, though NCP's allies have not said so in as many words. "This confusion should be cleared by him. The Maha Vikas Aghadi is together, and INDIA is also together," Raut said.

A delegation of Congress leaders from Pune were supposed to meet Pawar to dissuade him from attending the function but the meeting did not take place. Incidentally, Rohit Tilak, the great grandson of Lokmanya Tilak, one of the organisers of the function, is a Congress leader from Pune.