The differences between CM Prithviraj Chavan and Congress state president Manikrao Thakre surfaced once again on Monday. Mr Thakre rebuffed the CM’s statement that some state minister would be asked to contest the Lok Sabha elections. The MPCC president said that there was no need for any state minister to contest the Lok Sabha election.
Mr Chavan on Friday had said in New Delhi that senior Congress ministers might be the party’s candidates for the next general election. The Nationalist Congress Party has already decided to offer some of their senior ministers to contest the Lok Sabha election of 2014. Toeing the same line, Mr Chavan expressed his view in the capital.
However, rejecting the CM’s comments, Mr Thakre said, “Congress has so many capable leaders to contest the election, so there is no need to force the state ministers to contest national elections.”
Mr Thakre was speaking at the press conference organised by Youth Congress at the state Congress office. State Youth Congress president Vishwjeet Kadam, vice-president Satyajeet Tambe and Pradesh Returning Officer (PRO) Rajkumar Kataria were also present.
Speaking about the Land Reforms Bill introduced by the UPA government, Mr Thakre assured the farmers that the Bill will not be implemented in the state in its present form, as it will affect farmers adversely. He said, “The draft is not in favour of the farmers, but the UPA government has allowed the state to amend the Bill as per their requirement. So, farmers from the state need not worry.”
The state Congress chief also expressed the confidence that the Food Security Bill will be implemented without any hurdles. He further said that the existing public distribution system is sufficient to implement the scheme.
However, Mr Thakre steered clear from NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s statement that the Food Security Bill would make people lazy as they would have food grains at cheaper rates without making any efforts. Mr Thakre said that he was not aware of the context of Mr Pawar’s statement.