At 81, Sharad Pawar takes on the task of uniting Opposition against BJP
The NCP has called for the creation of an “anti-bjp front” based on the principle of ‘collective leadership’
MUMBAI: As he turns 81 on Sunday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar is busy preparing to unite Opposition parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next general elections. His close aides say the Maratha strongman is willing to take an initiative in bringing Opposition parties together and play the role of a mediator between the Congress and Trinamool Congress, provided he is given a prominent role by the Opposition parties for these efforts.
In its national executive meeting held in New Delhi on December 7, the NCP called for the creation of an anti-bjp Opposition front in the country based on the principle of “collective leadership.” In her visit to Mumbai, while Pawar stood next to her, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee, said there was no United Progressive Alliance (UPA) left in the country and pitched for unifying Opposition parties to take on the BJP. Pawar, however, maintained that the intention was not to keep the Congress away but to unify everyone in an “anti-bjp front”.
While he remains a tricky partner for the Congress, Pawar is also in touch with key Opposition parties like Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party. His close aides in the party as well as ally Shiv Sena would like him to head the Opposition front though Congress, which is traditionally the fulcrum of such efforts, is not willing to accept this. Back in Maharashtra, Pawar’s NCP is also looking at taking over Congress’ support base even though the two parties are part of the ruling MVA.
“Politically, the Congress is not what it was a decade ago, and it must come to terms with this. For instance, in Maharashtra, which had a Congress chief minister till 2014, it does not even have its deputy chief minister in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government,” explained a senior NCP minister who has worked closely with Pawar. He however added that they do want the Congress to be part of the anti-bjp alliance. In the past, Pawar has likened the Congress to the impoverished landlords in Uttar Pradesh, who lost their landholdings to ceiling laws, yet reminisce about past glories. Expectedly, many in Congress look at Pawar with suspicion.
A Congress Rajya Sabha MP said that, like always, Pawar seemed to be keeping his options open for any future realignments. Much would depend on the outcome of the 2022 state assembly elections, and the verdict of the 2024 polls. The MP pointed at how Pawar never burns bridges. In 1999, he formed the NCP after being expelled from the Congress, but allied with the Congress to form the government in Maharashtra months later.
However, he was unlikely to do anything that could rock the MVA’S boat in Maharashtra, considering that Banerjee has no presence here. “Banerjee is a fighter, but is a maverick. Pawar has never gone with maverick politicians considering his longterm stakes,” he explained. A former Congress MP said the NCP’S manoeuvres may be aimed at weaning away sections like the Muslims and the Dalits, who resented the growth of political Hindutva. Since Pawar is seen as the anchor of the MVA, which kept the BJP out of power, the NCP may be positioning itself as the real opposition to the BJP, to gain the support of these groups. At the same time, Pawar may be trying to pitch himself as the chairperson of the UPA or making a case for the UPA to be replaced with another front. The octogenarian Pawar has also nursed Prime Ministerial ambitions since the 1990s when he was in the Congress.
However, these plans may be hobbled by the NCP’S inherent limitations. As a Congress minister notes, the party is seen as an outfit of the dominant Marathas. It has negligible presence across the country, unlike the Congress, which has a formidable foot
print. The Dalits, who were often at odds with the Marathas, would continue to support the Congress instead of switching to the NCP, he averred.
Political analyst Prakash Pawar said that while Sharad Pawar seemed to send a message that since senior leader Rahul Gandhi was unwilling to lead the
Congress and the UPA, it was time for “collective leadership”. But, he had not called for the Congress to be kept away from the front, unlike Banerjee, who wanted to replace the Congress. He added that Pawar had traditionally taken a centrist approach, and had always opposed the BJP.