In Maharashtra, the political environment has been heating up. Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar targeted the PM on his demonetisation drive this week. In a farmers’ rally held in Nashik in northern Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar wondered if the PM would now eye the gold reserves in each household. “The leaders within BJP themselves feel that if that happens, people will not vote for them,” he said. “Whether the current decision is of ‘notebandi’ or ‘nasbandi’ (referring to mass sterilisation programmes undertaken during Indira Gandhi’s government), is something people will decide when they go to the polling booths,” he said. Sharad Pawar was addressing a farmers’ rally at Pimpalgaon in Nashik. He said that now that 50 days had passed since the demonetisation decision, its own allies like the Shiv Sena should decide what action should be taken against him. “He had said, ‘mitron, mujhe 50 din do. Nahi to aap jo kahenge, main sehen karunga’. (Friends, give me 50 days. Otherwise, I will accept whatever punishment you give me). Uddhav recently said, it has been 50 days now. In which chowk should he be made to stand? I said, you are allies. You decide what steps you should take. Bankers have said it will take the economy six years to recover from this,” he said.