Former Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday for choosing to address political rallies in West Bengal over meeting protesting farmers hardly 20km from his residence in Lutyens’ Delhi.

Addressing Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers in Ranchi’s Harmu ground, Pawar said Modi’s decision to avoid a dialogue with the protesting farmers clearly showed his priorities.

“The Prime Minister has the time to go to Calcutta and address rallies, but he doesn’t have the time to meet the protesting farmers,” said the NCP leader on Sunday, a day after the farmers’ protest against the farm laws entered its 100th day.

While Pawar was in Ranchi to strengthen the party’s base in Jharkhand, Modi was addressing a political rally in Calcutta to officially launch the BJP's campaign in Bengal, where he sought the support of pepole dethrone chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Addressing a party meeting in Ranchi, Pawar also said that communal tension and disharmony have been growing in India since the BJP came to power at the Centre. “It is the Centre’s responsibility to inculcate the feeling of brotherhood among its citizens, but the BJP is spewing communal venom in the country,” he said.

The former chairperson of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) lauded former team India capital Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his contribution to the game of cricket and said that he felt proud to stand in Dhoni’s hometown and address his party workers.

“When Rahul Dravid decided to step down from captaincy, I asked Sachin Tendulkar to take charge as the captain. But he suggested Dhoni’s name for captaincy. Today, I feel proud that I am standing on the land of one of the greatest cricketers the country has ever produced,” Pawar said.

The NCP leader also took a dig at the Narendra Modi-led Centre over the alleged mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis in India. “What did they do? They asked BJP workers to beat plates. But we don’t beat plates. We try and find ways to get food on our plates,” said Pawar.

The NCP has only one MLA in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly. However, the party has been working on strengthening its base in the tribal state to. Kamlesh Singh, NCP’s lone MLA in the state from Hussainabad, accompanied Pawar in Ranchi. Pawar, sources said, was likely to meet chief minister Hemant Soren later in the day and fly back to Mumbai on Sunday evening.