Pawar vs Pawar: How uncle ended nephew’s coup bid
MUMBAI: When the story of the three-day old long Devendra Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar government is written, a substantial part of it will focus on how Sharad Pawar, 79, the grand old man of Maharashtra politics outwitted his ambitious nephew.
On Saturday morning, Ajit Pawar, 60, elected legislative party leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, surprised everyone by allying with Fadnavis to form a BJP-NCP government in the state, “for the sake of farmers” as he himself put it.
Faced with the prospect of a split in the NCP and the family, party (and family) patriarch Sharad Pawar moved quickly.
“I have seen many such battles. It is not new for me,” Sharad Pawar told the media on Monday after paying tributes to his political guru, the late YB Chavan at Karad in western Maharashtra.
Indeed, Sharad Pawar has, for many decades now, played a significant role in making or breaking governments in the state and splitting parties. Still, this case was different because the split was being engineered by his nephew, effectively No 2 in the party hierarchy, and the man widely seen as his political heir.
The BJP’s attempt to form the government was entirely built around Ajit Pawar’s ability to break the NCP. After all, he knew the NCP inside-out, was popular with a section of party workers, and at least a dozen legislators were his men.
Late on Tuesday evening, Ajit Pawar met his uncle amid speculation that he may return to the party fold.
Sharad Pawar had to deal with several issues. The most significant was the personal shock of his favoured nephew switching sides.