Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment and Republican Party of India (RPI) president Ramdas Athawale visited the State Capital on Friday and demanded 3 to 4 seats from ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in upcoming State Assembly Elections.
Addressing a press meet at the State Guest House, Athawale said earlier RPI had no public support in Jharkhand but in recent years a large numbers of people have been joining RPI so that a meeting with Chief Minister, Raghubar Das is scheduled in which he will demand 3 to 4 seats out of total 81 seats in NDA alliance. “If the NDA alliance will not be able to fulfill our demand then the party will field on 15 to 20 seats in the State Assembly Elections and on the remaining seats the party will support NDA candidates,” he added.
Athawale demanded one Cabinet and one State minister berth in the new Maharashtra State Government. The RPI had contested the Maharashtra Assembly elections in an alliance with BJP and Shiv Sena.
“Union Home Minister, Amit Shah will visit Mumbai to meet Shiv Sena Chief, Uddhav Thackeray to discuss that who will be made Ministers in the State Cabinet,” said the Union Minister.Maharashtra State went to the polls for its 288 assembly seats on October 21. BJP-Shiv Sena alliance bagged the maximum number of seats in the State elections. BJP secured a total of 105 seats while its alliance partner Shiv Sena won on 56 seats. Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party came back to regain its credibility by winning 54 seats. Congress party came on the fourth position with 44 seats.
Reacting on the Maharashtra Poll results Athawale said that the results are short of expectations. “We are short of 20 seats the alliance won in 2014 State Assembly Elections.
We expected that we will increase our numbers as in last election BJP, Shiv Sena and RPI had contested separately and more numbers of seats. BJP had fielded candidates on 260 seats and won 122 of them. The Shiv Sena fielded candidates in all 282 constituencies and won 63 of them,” he added.
Cautioning Pakistan the Union Minister for State said that it must stop encouraging terrorists and vacate Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
“If Pakistan will not stop its activity in PoK then India will force to vacate PoK from the terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad. As a good neighbour we do not like to fight against Pakistan so that we are cautioning the Country to stop its activity in the region,” he added.