Nitin Gadkari today said the two were more interested in cricket than in farmers' problems.
In a departure from his party's initial coyness in naming NCP leaders and fellow Maharashtrians Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel for price rise and the IPL issue, BJP president Nitin Gadkari today said the two were more interested in cricket than in farmers' problems.
Addressing a mammoth farmers' rally in Patel's Lok Sabha constituency here, Gadkari said 'Purti' an NGO run by him had
bought the local non-functional Wainganga Cooperative Sugar
factory recently to generate employment for the youth of the
region and to make farmers debt-free.
"Government wants to know who will run this sugar factory. Leaders from here are more interested in cricket than in running a sugar factory, half-clad girls during the matches. Rashtrawadi (a reference to NCP) leaders Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel are more interested in cricket than problems of farmers, the unemployed and the poor," Gadkari said.
Till now BJP leaders have focused their criticism of price rise and even the IPL issue on the Congress-led UPA government.
For rising prices of essential commodities, the main opposition has maintained that the whole Manmohan Singh cabinet and especially the Prime Minister himself- being a renowned economist- is responsible.
Gadkari said the two NCP leaders were watching cricket in floodlights at night while there was load-shedding up to 24
hours in the Vidharba region.
"If you vote for us (BJP), I assure you that if I do not stop power load-shedding in two years, I will quit politics. Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel are watching cricket at night in floodlight. There it is Twenty-Twenty and here it is (power-cut) 24x24 (hours)," Gadkari said.
The BJP president also took a swipe at Congress president
Sonia Gandhi for "failing" to remove poverty and give adequate
power supply to people despite making these promises during
polls.
"You all said Sonia aayi hai, roshni laayi hai (Sonia has come, she has brought power). Congress said garibi hatao (remove poverty) but population of people below poverty line has actually increased by 41 crore," he claimed.
Gadkari accused Pawar and Manmohan Singh of being involved in a "sugar export-import scam" to the tune of thousands of crores. He alleged that sugar was exported at a lower price and was later imported at nearly three times the export price.
The BJP chief said once the sugar factory starts functioning it would generate employment to 5,000 people and generate income for two lakh sugarcane farmers.
"Only the youth of the Bhandara and Gondia districts will get jobs in this factory. There is no politics here. We support politics for progress and politics for development," Gadkari said.
He promised that farmers who sell sugarcane to the Wainganga Cooperative Sugar factory would get "100% payment in eight days".
The 52-year-old leader said he did wanted to stop farmer suicides in the district, create employment and make farmers debt-free.
Gadkari's NGO had bought the sugar factory which was running a loss of Rs 25 crore for Rs 14.10 crore. "We plan to invest Rs 100 crore in this factory," an aide of the BJP president said.
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