Congress and the NCP are relying on the Maratha strong man Sharad Pawar to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charisma and strategy of party president Amit Shah in the assembly polls scheduled on October 21. Jitendra Awhad, the NCP leader said that Sharad Pawar is the big brand in Maharashtra. "Pawar has been the centre pole of the Maharashtra politics for the last 50 years. The state politics has been always evolved around Pawar only. He has relations with every sections and sector. He knew the pulse of the people and they are also emotionally connected to him. Therefore, we are confident that Pawar sahib's charisma will again work in this poll," Awhad said. Awhad said that in this poll, Pawar sahib is getting overwhelming response particularly from the youths. "In the pre-poll campaign, Pawar had gone to Marathwada and Western Maharashtra where he got huge response. That send the shock wave in the BJP camp therefore to pressurise him, the Enforcement Directorate notice was issued to him. But that boomeranged to BJP. On the contrary it helped Pawar sahib. He got the sympathy. People came to know that the BJP-led government wants to put the 80-year-old man behind bars, who is fighting for their right. It rejuvenated our somber cadre," Awhad said. Senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity said that in Maharashtra, there is no big leader with the stature of Sharad Pawar. "In Lok Sabha polls, the NCP won four seats while the Congress won only one. Once the Congress had strong party workers network, but today it is fragmented. We are rather than fighting against the BJP, we are busy in fighting with each other. We are almost finished but still fear the threat of each other. This has resulted into decimation of our leadership and party as well," he added. He further said that the state Congress leaders had no wider appeal in all sections of the society. "Our president Sonia Gandhi is there, but she has the limitations. We hope that the sympathy towards Pawar will also help us in polls because of our alliance. In 2014, the Congress and the NCP fought the election separately therefore our secular votes got divided. This time, we are united and anti-incumbency votes will surely defeat the BJP and the Shiv Sena candidates," he added requested anonymity.

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