Defection-Hit Ajit Pawar Is In Sticky Wicket In Maharashtra Politics

By Sushil Kutty

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is still to recover from defections of NCP (Ajit Pawar) leaders to the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction of Ajit Pawar’s uncle Sharad Pawar. Four Pune-based NCP (Ajit Pawar) leaders resigned and rejoined Sharad Pawar’s NCP and a week later the faction led by Ajit Pawar is still sweating.

Among the four Pune leaders who quit and joined NCP (Sharad Pawar) included Ajit Gavhane, NCP’s former Pimpri-Chinchwad chief, who has a sound hold in the region. The three others who left Ajit Pawar orphaned and impatient were Rahul Bhosale, Pankaj Bhalekar, and Yash Sane, all of them influential politicians in the Pimpri-Chinchwad region.

It is not suddenly that these leaders switched over to the Sharadchandra faction of the NCP, the Lok Sabha election results decided for them. NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) did exceedingly well in the Lok Sabha polls, winning 8 out of 10 seats contested, compared to the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP which won one seat and lost from three other seats. Clearly the voters had told their preference between uncle and nephew. The senior Pawar was without doubt the people’s favourite. And the state polls are just months away.

One view is that Sharad Pawar is making a comeback; the party he founded in 1999 had been split into two a year ago, and that by his favourite nephew, who did the unpardonable and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government as a Deputy Chief Minister. To compound the “unpardonable”, Sharad Pawar was also divested of the party name and party symbol by Ajit Pawar in a replay of what had happened to former Chief Minister Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, when Eknath Shinde walked off with more than 40 Sena MLAs. NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Sena are part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi along with the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP.

The MVA is one big whole and UBT Sena and NCP (Sharad Pawar) haven’t broken up so far though BJP leaders often spread the canard that they have parted way. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to know why NCP (Ajit Pawar) leaders are switching to NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). The Lok Sabha results in favour of Sharad Pawar’s NCP did the trick. NCP (Ajit Pawar) leaders expect NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) to repeat its stellar performance in the Lok Sabha elections in the upcoming assembly elections, too.

And NCP (Ajit Pawar) politicians want to be on the winning side in the assembly elections and the view holds that the MVA is a better bet compared to the Mahayuti, of which the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP is a part of. Also, which of the two Pawars contributed more to the development of key regions of the state counted?

The Pawars, both uncle and nephew, worked hard for the development of Pimpri-Chinchwad but the BJP runs the municipal corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad and development has been hit under the BJP’s watch. Corruption is also a big issue. Locals believe Sharad Pawar is best for them even if Ajit Pawar has his set of diehard supporters. Sharad Pawar’s daughter and four-time Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, however, backs her 83-year-old father against her 64-year-old cousin.

Sule says people have “faith in Pawar sahab”, which is why many politicians in the opposition (Mahayuti) are joining him. Will one of them be Ajit Pawar? Speculation is rife that Ajit Pawar will also be back, one day! Asked of chances Ajit Pawar might return, Sharad Pawar said such decisions cannot be that of one man alone. “My colleagues who stood by me during the crisis will have to be asked first.”

That must be disappointing for Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. That is, even if he returns and joins his uncle, there will be a new hierarchy he will be answering to. Two, the Lok Sabha performance of NCP (Ajit Pawar) was a big blow to the Eknath Shinde-led government – a Deputy Chief Minister whose party won only one out of four Lok Sabha seats it contested. Talk in the Mahayuti is that the likelihood of poor showing by the NCP (Ajit Pawar) faction could hurt the Mahayuti’s prospects in the assembly elections.

The fact is, Ajit Pawar faces a big challenge in the assembly elections. Ajit Pawar is ambitious and he wants to be Chief Minister and with assembly elections slated for October this year, Pawar is setting the stage to his liking. Towards that end, he has asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to part with 80-90 assembly seats with the warning that the deal must be done and dusted with ASAP, no lingering…

Ajit Pawar is in a hurry to seal the deal. With too many cooks to spoil the broth, there cannot be a delay. Therefore, Ajit Pawar and his cohorts getting into a huddle. This was expected after several top NCP (Ajit Pawar) leaders ditched Ajit Pawar and returned to the NCP led by Sharad Pawar, fuelling talk that even Ajit Pawar was mulling a switch though that is more talk than reality. Ajit Pawar is waiting for the BJP to act on his instructions, his terms! (IPA Service)