Rane criticised the Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar and also the Congress leadership in the State without naming anyone in particular for politicising the developmental issues.

The Chief Minister was speaking after laying the foundation stone of the Rs 30 crore Neera-Bheema Cooperative Sugar Factory at Reda village in Indapur taluka.

On the accusation against the BJP-SS of destabilising the cooperative sector, Rane assailed the sugar baron for misuse of power and the cooperative network. Nearly 90 per cent of cooperative sugar factories in the State are sick due to irresponsible leadership, he added.

Rane maintained that the saffron alliance was never biased towards any of the cooperative units. He dared the Congress leaders to cite any one instance of partial treatment given to any cooperative unit. He appealed to the farmers to support the saffron combine without any fear for effectively addressing various issues related to them. Criticising the previous Congress governments, he said that the power hungry leaders even engineered splits in their own party.

Minister for Agriculture Harshavardhan Patil, Minister for Legal Affairs Dilip Sopal, Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and former MP S B Patil were present.