The meeting was called to review the performance of RPI (Athawale) in the Zilla Parishad, Panchayat Samiti and municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra last month.
Republican Party of India chief Ramdas Athawale today the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance can come to power in Maharashtra only if gets votes from minorities.
If the mega alliance (Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI) wants to come to power in the state, it needs the votes of minorities, especially Muslims, he said while addressing a meeting of the office-bearers and workers of his party here.
The meeting was called to review the performance of RPI (Athawale) in the Zilla Parishad, Panchayat Samiti and municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra last month.
He lauded the performance of Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in the corporation polls.
MNS, which came into existence barely six years back, has really grown well as a political party and did well in the corporation elections in Nashik, Pune and Mumbai, the former State Minister said.
Athawale rued that Dalit-dominated RPI, which has split into various factions, has failed to emerge as a formidable political force despite being formed over five decades ago. "RPI was established in 1957, but still we don't have enough political strength."
"A party like Peasants and Workers Party has 5-6 MLAs, but we are not able to win even 5-10 Assembly seats," the former Lok Sabha MP added.
Athawale said his party will organise a protest march on the first day of the Maharashtra Legislature session later this month to press for the demand to allot Indu mill land here building a memorial of Babasaheb Ambedkar.
"The Central Government had in January said the entire 12.5 acres of mill land will be allotted for the memorial, but nothing has been done till now," he said.
Meanwhile, a group of RPI workers protested before the vehicle of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who had come to attend a Mumbai Congress meeting.
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