Pune: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers burned an effigy of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and MLA Gopichand Padalkar while protesting against his derogatory remarks on NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
NCP workers across the state have protested against Padalkar's statement. The city unit of the party had organised a protest at the Lokmanya Tilak statue in Mandai on Thursday morning at around 10 am. Party workers raised slogans against Padalkar and BJP as well. There was a heavy police bandobast at the site.
Party leaders Jaydev Gaikwad, Ankush Kakade, Ravindra Malwadkar, Rajlakshmi Bhosale, Baburao Chandere, Pradeep Deshmukh, Shashikala Kumbhar and other workers participated in the protests while maintaining social distance. NCP city unit president Chetan Tupe was not seen on the protest site. Party leaders said Tupe is placed in home quarantine and hence could not step out of his home to participate in the protest. NCP workers had brought an effigy of Padalkar at the protest site. They first garlanded the statue with chappals, raised slogans and then burnt the effigy.
While addressing protestors, Gaikwad and Kakade said that the BJP has shown its real culture by making derogatory remarks against Sharad Pawar. Padalkar's statement reflects the low-level politics which BJP engages in.