Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) to sound tutari for Lok Sabha polls

Mumbai: With an election symbol linked to Maharashtra and the life and times of legendary Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) is set to hit the streets with a symbol showing a ‘man blowing turha’ (tutari)— as it attempts to resurrect the group in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Tutari is a trumpet-like instrument made of brass, which was used by the Maratha army.

Even now, tutari is blown before functions, both official and private, and also social events reflecting the importance that this musical instrument carries in Maharashtra.

“The Tutari in the form of great valour of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had once deafened the emperor of Delhi. It is a great honour for our party to get Tutari (Man Blowing Turha) as our symbol for upcoming elections. Our Tutari is now ready to shake Delhi's throne under the leadership of Sharad Pawar,” the NCP (SP) said in a post on X.

“With the unity of farmers, labourers, women, youth, Maharashtra will overcome the throne of Delhi!,” the post further reads.

Veteran politician Sharad Pawar, who heads the NCP (SP) and his daughter Supriya Sule have already been travelling across Maharashtra since the June-July 2023 split. The announcement of a separate name and symbol days before the general elections is likely to come as a boost to the party's campaigns.

The NCP was founded on 10 June, 1999 after Sharad Pawar along with former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar raised the issue of foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi— leading to their expulsion.

In June-July 2023, Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar rebelled to join the BJP-led NDA coalition and thereafter claimed the original party.

The Election Commission and Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar has declared that the Ajit Pawar-headed group is the “real NCP party”. However, both these decisions have been challenged by Sharad Pawar.

The rebellion has come as a jolt to Sharad Pawar, a four-time Maharashtra Chief Minister and three-time Union Minister, who is the chief architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi and a key leader of the Congress-led I.N.D.I.A. opposition bloc.

Supriya Sule, who is the Baramati MP, said: “This tutari gives the message of rising up against injustice. The turari calls for a struggle against the anti-Maharashtra tendencies.”

Maharashtra NCP (SP) President Jayant Patil said: “Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji. Let's fight again, let's win again… Let's blow the "trumpet" of struggle!,” wrote Shirur MP Dr Amol Kolhe.

“Blow the trumpet, bury the traitors,” said Dr Jitendra Awhad, the NCP (SP) group leader in the Assembly. “Its a tutari of revolution,” said Karjat-Jamkhed MLA Rohit Pawar, the grand nephew of Sharad Pawar.

In a post on X, NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said: “Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar…Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra, Jai Rashtrawadi”.