IIn 1958, at the age of 18, Sharad Pawar visited the Congress office in Pune to register himself as an active party member. His entire family was ideologically inclined towards the leftist Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), although his mother was elected to the Pune local board on a Congress ticket. His brother, Vasantrao, contested the 1960 Lok Sabha by-election in Baramati on a PWP ticket, but eventually lost the election, as Pawar campaigned for the Congress candidate.
In 1962, YB Chavan visited Pawar’s home in Baramati and asked his mother to allow her son to learn under her tutelage. “All of us in the House are associated with the Leftist ideology, but Sharad has somehow deviated and come on your path. If he wants, I don’t mind going with you. My only expectation is that he always sticks to his beliefs and follows that path honestly,” she told him. This conversation is recalled by Pawar in his autobiography titled on my terms,
Nobody knows whether Sharad Pawar had similar thoughts on Sunday, when his nephew Ajit Pawar broke away from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to take oath as deputy chief minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra. However, he may not feel too betrayed by his nephew – after all, Sharad Pawar himself became chief minister in 1978 by leading a rebel group of MLAs against the then CM Vasantdada Patil. He even defied his mentor at that time, Yashwantrao Chavan. In his 55 years long political career, Sharad Pawar has made every effort to occupy high positions.
Therefore, he must have known that his nephew’s rebellion was only a matter of time. Ajit, 63, couldn’t wait any longer – literally not after his uncle announced His daughter Supriya Sule is his successor.
Undoubtedly, the BJP has reasons to celebrate. It looked shaky even after Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena split and brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Sena, NCP and Congress in June 2022. Despite its inherent ideological contradictions and weak military, the MVA remains electorally powerful. a macro group survey Has shown The NDA is trailing the MVA by around 8 percentage points. Congress also in a by-election in March 2022 snatched away The Kasba Peth Assembly seat was wrested from the BJP, which it held for nearly three decades.
BJP Is Happy, But fadnavis Is Happy
The BJP could not ignore these warning signs from a state that sends 48 members to the Lok Sabha. It was equally inauspicious for Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis. A recent Sena advertisement in the newspaper claimed that more Maharashtrians supported Shinde as chief minister than Fadnavis, which must have unnerved Shinde. while both are allies succeeded To sort it out, the episode sent a clear message to Fadnavis – Shinde is not going to be a pushover, nor is he relishing his job as a night watchman. Also, he is not keeping the CM’s chair warm for Fadnavis but wants to continue in the post even after 2024. Fadnavis might not have bargained for this when he engineered defections in the Shiv Sena and toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led government.
If Ajit brings in enough MLAs – just enough to provide a majority even without the Sena – it will rein in Shinde and his ambitions. This will give more leeway to Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar to decide on the disqualification petitions against Shinde and 16 other Shiv Sena MLAs. Shinde and his army allies can no longer tolerate the arrogance that Fadnavis has Ajit Pawar.
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Sharad Pawar down but not out
Prima facie, Sharad Pawar appears to be outmaneuvered and outmaneuvered by his nephew. Eventually, Ajit took along one of Sharad Pawar’s staunchest loyalists—Praful Patel. It is a very bold move for NCP MLAs to abandon Sharad Pawar and place more faith in Ajit to secure their future. At 82 and ailing, Mr Pawar may not seem like the best choice for ambitious and insecure politicians, but he is still the last person they would want to bother. The nephew may have a firm grip on the organization and has support among party leaders and workers, but he does not have the mass appeal of his uncle. Sharad Pawar remains the NCP for many voters and only time will tell whether Ajit has the charisma to wean him away from his uncle.
If Enforcement Directorate (ED) just named Sharad Pawar in money laundering case before 2019 assembly elections made Making him the face of the opposition and turning the tide for the BJP, how can this octogenarian leader be betrayed by his own party members in Maharashtra? Ajit and his supporters in the camp must have decided to take the risk, if only to avoid the heat of the investigative agencies for the time being. who has seen yesterday they say.
After taking oath as a cabinet minister on Sunday, Chhagan Bhujbal claimed that Sharad Pawar Said His party colleagues said that Narendra Modi is returning as prime minister in 2024, and hence, as a positive sign, he and other NCP leaders decided to join hands with the Sena-BJP government for development .
Bhujbal must be misleading or telling the truth. But if one believes his claims, Sharad Pawar would be wise to let some of his trusted lieutenants seek a better and safer future in the BJP, even as he works to forge opposition unity in the 2024 elections . Such is his aura that he is seen as the PM-in-waiting in political circles. But Sharad Pawar knows better. His focus is on building his daughter’s political career and making her the true successor of his political legacy. With almost all of her perceived challengers turning rebels, it will be easier for Sharad Pawar to rebuild the NCP around his daughter. However, his immediate priority would be to minimize rebellion. Ajith’s exit is just the motivation he needed to prepare for the final crunch.
Fadnavis may have reasons to believe that he has handed over Maharashtra to PM Modi for the 2024 general elections by splitting Shiv Sena and NCP in a span of one year. But a bigger challenge awaits Maharashtra’s deputy CMs in the 2024 assembly elections – a CM, Eknath Shinde, who wants to hold on to the chair for a long time, and, a fellow deputy CM, Ajit, who has fought against his uncle. Have broken up with. ambitions. Imagine how these three very ambitious individuals will achieve their goals in the coming months. If inherent ideological contradictions formed the basis of the three-party MVA, the conflicting ambitions in the newly formed three-party NDA in Maharashtra make it equally vulnerable.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeek)