With senior NCP leaders launching a scathing attack on the Shinde-Fadnavis government over Maharashtra losing out on mega investment projects, the party’s Pune city unit staged a protest on Monday accusing the newly formed government of working in the interest of Gujarat and hampering the prospects of youths in the state.
The protest was led by city chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Prashant Jagtap outside Mamledar Kacheri in the heart of Pune. Agitators raised slogans against the state government and carried banners stating that the alliance sought votes for Maharashtra’s development but was more keen to develop poll-bound Gujarat.
“A large number of private investments planned in the state have gone out since the formation of the Shinde-Fadnavis government. They have snatched the employment opportunities of thousands of youths in the state,” said Jagtap.
“The new government is more inclined towards the development of poll-bound Gujarat rather than their own state,” he said, adding that the Chief Minister is made to make rounds of Delhi and fed with issues to divert the public’s attention from important issues like inflation, unemployment and industries going to Gujarat.
City NCP spokesperson Pradeep Deshmukh said the Shinde-Fadnavis government’s only agenda is to “rehabilitate” the 50 rebel legislators who joined the Eknath Shinde faction that left the Shiv Sena led by Uddav Thackeray. “They have no concern towards the unemployed youth of the state. They have failed to retain investment projects that were proposed in the state,” Deshmukh said.