After poll debacle, NCP chief Sharad Pawar urges party workers to learn ‘perseverance’ from RSS

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday asked his party workers to take a leaf out of RSS volunteers' book and show perseverance in reaching out to voters. He was speaking at a meeting of party leaders and workers from the Pimpri-Chinchwad area near in Pune.

"I do not say we have to follow everything the RSS workers do, but we can certainly learn from their determination and persistence while visiting voters," he said.

Party workers should not feel dejected because of the results of the Lok Sabha elections and start preparing for the Maharashtra Assembly elections which are due in October- November, Pawar said.

Recalling his conversation with a BJP leader, Pawar said, "He told me that your party workers go to peoples' houses and if nobody is home, they drop the party's pamphlet at the doorstep and leave.

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"But if an RSS worker working for the party (BJP) finds the door closed in the morning, he will visit that house again in the evening. If it is still closed, he will go to the same house the next morning and will ensure that he meets the people living there and hand over the pamphlet," he said.

"We need not follow them entirely, but the way they show persistence in developing public relations, I feel that persistence is very important," the veteran politician said.

NCP workers should aim to meet every voter in their respective areas, he said.

Pawar also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meditation in a cave at Kedarnath before the last phase of Lok Sabha polls.

"We should see where the entire world is heading, where science is heading, but our Prime Minister (instead) prefers to go to a cave and meditate," the former Union minister said.

At a press conference later, Pawar was asked about his refusal to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new Modi government, reportedly because he was offered a seat in the fifth row.

"My secretary went to the President's office twice and both the time, he was told that the 'V' on the pass meant the fifth row. Now a clarification has come (from the president's office) that it meant the VVIP row....for me, the chapter is closed," he said.

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