By Sushil Kutty
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar is giving nightmares to Maha Vikas Aghadi constituents Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Shiv Sena and the Congress. Both parties are nervous that Sharad Pawar might be led away to the BJP side by Pawar’s nephew and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. For the uncle-nephew combination upsetting political set-ups is child’s play. The Congress knows this and the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Shiv Sena wouldn’t bet a busted nickel on either of them staying true to a given statement.
The Pawars met Saturday afternoon at an acquaintance’s place and talk swirled, muddying the waters and forcing Sharad Pawar to repeat that he’s not gonna become an ally of Ajit’s ally, the BJP. But Shiv Sena UBT and the Congress are not convinced. They want Sharad Pawar to clear the confusion once and for all. Without Sharad Pawar’s NCP, the MVA will capsize in the shallows of Maharashtra politics. The UBT Shiv Sena at least knows that it is fighting existential threat.
Sharad Pawar sort of cleared his position, stating that the BJP couldn’t ever be an ally of the NCP, not ever. But there are “colleagues” who think otherwise and these are the folks who have been checking on Sharad Pawar. So close it is to the 2024 general elections that there is no time to waste quibbling. Sharad Pawar says that in his “capacity as the NCP’s national president” there is no question the NCP will ally with the BJP.
The day before Sharad and Ajit Pawar had met at a family friend’s residence where Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis was also present. Later, Sharad Pawar said, “Ajit is my nephew. I am the eldest person in the Pawar family. Meeting a younger person in the family or calling him to meet is nothing wrong.” But why the secrecy? “What secret meeting? Instead of meeting at my place, we met at someone’s house. Does that make it secret?” asked Sharad, who insists the NCP is one whole and not split.
The “misgivings” in the Congress and Shiv Sena UBT, however, remain. What is happening behind closed doors in the Pawar family is hard to guess. Pawar’s clarification notwithstanding. The uncle and nephew keep falling in and out with each other. It’s commonplace for them to keep “well-wishers” on tenterhooks. Following the latest meeting between the two, the uneasiness in the Congress and the UBT Shiv Sena is like a thick slab of beef steak.
Congress state unit president Nana Patole met UBT Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray and discussed the “Pawars” and came out saying that there cannot be room for “any confusion among people and MVA workers” and that the MVA should be a united front. But nothing is as easy as it sounds. Despite Sharad Pawar’s contrary claim, the NCP has been split asunder and the Election Commission is yet to rule on the split. There’s a big fight ahead whoever wins or loses.
UBT Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut was at the Nana Patole-Uddhav Thackeray meeting where Patole and UBT asked Sharad Pawar to come clean. The Pawar Vs. Pawar tussle is not good for the MVA. “His meeting in this fashion will only create confusion in the minds of the voters, which will prove costly for the MVA in the ensuing elections,” said Raut. For Congress and Shiv Sena UBT, the voters come first, and the Pawars second.
So, it is up to Pawar to reel in the fish and declare his stand on Ajit Pawar. And while everybody is aware of the elephant in the room, nobody is talking of the BJP except asking Sharad Pawar to stop acting and coming clean. The Bharatiya Janata Party cannot be comfortable till as long as the Maha Vikas Aghadi is not split and hung out to dry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maximalist agenda hangs on the BJP getting 300-plus seats in 2024 and Maharashtra plays a big role.
Sharad Pawar is playing a deep game. Maybe, the nephew is in on it or he is simply playing his cards as dictated by the BJP. The uncle-nephew duo had met as many as four or five times in July and then on August 1, Sharad Pawar was at the function to felicitate Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Lokmanya Tilak Award ceremony in Pune.
Sharad Pawar should stop playing his cat and mouse game with the MVA. The 2024 general elections will be the octogenarian’s last outing as a key player. He can either fade or make a mark before the pack-up. Besides, if Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets the voters’ sack, he will have a chance to play the biggest part. Nothing is certain in politics and, more to the point, Narendra Modi himself is not certain what’s gonna happen; will Modi be confined to his Gujarat home watching thousands of balloons in the colours of the nation’s tricolour rising higher and higher in the gentle breeze? (IPA Service)
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