Click to play videoNew Delhi: Was it a mere coincidence that while Congress leaders were working out their strategy for Maharashtra polls, elsewhere the party came down heavily on Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar?
The blame game has already begun. The Agriculture Minister was being pulled up for the rising sugar prices and there was almost the insinuation that Pawar's ministry has a hand in the spiralling prices.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Satyavrat Chaturvedi says, "Today when the prices of sugar are rising, I simply ask one question: Where is the stock which was lying idle with the sugar mills?"
Now, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has written a letter to Sharad Pawar requesting him to control sugar prices and ensure adequate supply during the festival season.
Rising sugar prices is turning out to be an ingredient in the bitter-sweet Congress-NCP relationship and it will most certainly be an issue that will be used by the Congress to arm-twist the NCP during seat sharing talks.
In fact, some within Congress have already begun to say that passing on the blame for the sugar mess to Sharad Pawar could actually help the party.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Spokesperson, Kanhaiyalal Gidwani says, "Sugar prices really rocketed due to wrong and careless policies of the Food Ministry."
In Maharashtra, no political recipe is complete without a sugar input and the sugar belt in the state is politically sensitive, especially ahead of Assembly elections.
The main districts in the sugar belt are:
- Western Maharashtra: Ahmadnagar, Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Pune, Jalna
- Marathwada: Aurangabad, Latur, Beed, Nanded
Western Maharashtra, traditionally an NCP bastion, is also the sugar bowl of India. Congress is working towards making inroads here. Meanwhile, the Marathwada region is former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's stronghold.
(With inputs from Rohit Chandavarkar in Mumbai and Geetika Pokhriyal in New Delhi)
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