Sharad Pawar on backfoot, but not for long

No other leader can match the understanding and network Sharad Pawar has across the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies and 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar regales in a crisis. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has triggered a crisis in Pawar’s party, and now it must pay for it.

When politically challenged, Pawar is a man possessed. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP poached sitting NCP MP Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, to make inroads into NCP’s strongholds. In the bypolls to the Satara seat, Bhosale was BJP’s candidate and Shriniwas Patil was NCP’s candidate. One spirited speech by Pawar in the constituency amid heavy downpour went viral and took down Bhosale who was earlier seen as invincible.

The fact is that Pawar knows Maharashtra like the palm of his hand. There is almost no other leader who is more knowledgeable and has a better network across the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies and 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra. Pawar knows who the formidable candidates are of both the Opposition and the BJP as well. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is half a battle won.

Also read | NCP imbroglio: Sharad Pawar mum on assurance as Ajit camp urges him to find way out

BJP in a limbo

Another such leader was late Pramod Mahajan of the BJP, who was the architect of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in the 1980s, at a time when the Congress was the colossus in the state. Despite the initial hesitations of leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mahajan succeeded in forming the alliance.

The problem with the BJP today is that it has many leaders, but most of them have either been ignored or have not got their due. In the Modi scheme of things, Nitin Gadkari — who was BJP president a decade back — has been restricted to his constituency despite being a senior leader hailing from the RSS’ citadel. Devendra Fadnavis is no doubt an emerging leader, but he has been cut to size by making him Deputy Chief Minister.

Given this, everyone is biding their time. Maharashtra does not have a Yogi Adityanath, and that it has not been allowed to have one reflects poorly on the BJP. One reason for the BJP not blooming in Maharashtra could be that Gujarat is bordering the state and a powerful leadership in the state could overshadow Gujarat’s leadership.

With the untimely death of Mahajan, the BJP in Maharashtra was left in a limbo, and now has been tied to the coattails of Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah under whose directions the party and the state government are working. The ‘remote control’ does not always work, as was seen in the results to the Karnataka assembly polls. One must wait for the assembly polls in Maharashtra to see whether the BJP’s style of functioning is delivering.

Sharad Pawar and Congress

That Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s nephew and right-hand man in the NCP, has joined hands with the BJP has come as a blow to the senior Pawar. The likes of Praful Patel and Chagan Bhujbal have gone with the nephew adds to the jolt. That said, Sharad Pawar can outsmart his nephew. Ajit Pawar is a competent administrator but must become a leader on his own. The Pawar vs Pawar battle will shape Maharashtrian politics in the coming years. The first round goes to Ajit Pawar, but there are many more rounds to go.

As far as Ajit Pawar is concerned, to humble his uncle would be the ultimate political validation to his political leadership. For Sharad Pawar it is time to establish his daughter Supriya Sule was the NCP leader. In addition to these behind-the-scenes developments, there are other undercurrents as well.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with Sharad Pawar in Delhi after the NCP split was more than a morale booster. The BJP might not like it, but the fact is that Sharad Pawar is the tallest Congress leader in Maharashtra who is heading another political party. It might sound strange, but that is the fact. When it comes to the crunch, the Congress and the NCP fight unitedly. At the moment their chips are down, but the Maha Vikas Aghadi has more than a fighting chance against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, like Sharad Pawar, has been equally wronged by the growing ambitions and vendetta politics of the BJP, and is also raring to take on the ruling party.

Mumbai Next

The emergence of ‘INDIA’, the Opposition alliance of 26 parties at Bengaluru has been the best thing that has taken place so far ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The decision of the newly-formed Opposition alliance to have its next meeting in Mumbai is the right signal given at the right time. The Opposition is batting on the front foot.

The move has given a much-needed boost to Sharad Pawar, Thackeray and the Congress in Maharashtra, which might be down now but have much sting left in them. They will be playing in familiar territory. Backed by the combined Opposition, they will be more deadly than the Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar combine which wreaked havoc on the BJP in Karnataka. The BJP in Maharashtra might ahead now, but the tide could quickly change. The problem is that the BJP high command has failed to read the mind of the Marathi manoos.

(Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari are senior journalists.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.