Addressing a well-attended election campaigning rally to canvass his party candidates at Shivaji Chowk here, Pawar said that the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections would be decisive and expressed confidence that the people of the State would play a leading role in maintaining the country's self-respect.

Till the vertical spilt in the Congress, he said, he had approached the electorate for votes as a Congressman. ``After the spilt, I am appealing to the voters as a real Congressman, the follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Yashwantrao Chavan and Vasantraodada Patil,'' Pawar stated.

Pawar said the BJP-led government at the Centre, had failed on all fronts including economic, agriculture and protecting the borders and therefore had no right to `beg' for votes in the name of providing a stable and able government. The Indian soldiers were successful in flushing out Pakistani intruders, but Prime Minister Vajpayee's government was wrongly taking its credit, Pawar charged and pointed that the Kargil issue was not a matter of a few days plan by Pakistan but atleast six months' plot and the rulers had totally failed to identified that.

Pawar alleged that the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in its rule were busy recovering "khandani", spreading gundaism, corrupt practices and misappropriation of wealth. The State's cooperative movement, which was developed by late chief ministers Yashwantrao Chavan, Vasantraodada Patil and others was destroyed by the alliance government, Pawar alleged. Several farmers in the state had committed suicide due to alliance government's apathy, he said.