To cope with the growing dissent with the alliance partner Congress in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party is desperate to shut its image as a “Maratha” strong party. Party president Sharad Pawar has declared that “women” will be the party’s new “voter base”. Mr Pawar’s daughter MP Supriya Sule will head the Nationalist Yuvati Congress that will be active from June 10.
Mr Pawar, in the party’s executive meet held on Saturday evening, said that even as the NCP initiated 50 per cent reservation for women in the local self-governments, the actual participation of women in the party’s actual working was still not significant. This was evident from the number of women present in the party’s executive meet.
“I have visited many states and met many people. The political parties doing well in a state have one common feature, and that it is, they have a certain voter base. For instance Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party has the Yadav and Muslim voter base, Mayawati’s party has the dalit base to prop their politics. We do not have any such base. We should change this. We should have our base in this 50 per cent reservation for women,” said Mr Pawar. Mr Pawar’s call to make women the base of the party is looked upon as a strategic move by political experts as this will circumvent issues of caste-based policies and Maratha reservations. This will also improve NCP’s performance in the urban areas.