THE NCP’S ENDGAME?
His party foundering, former strongman Sharad Pawar makes a desperate bid to stay relevant in state and national politics
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has met Rahul Gandhi three times since March, his first one-to-one dialogue with a Congress president in 15 years. More recently, he ‘gifted’ the Congress an extra seat during the biennial state legislative council elections on July 9. The overtures, some say, reflect Pawar’s desperation to remain relevant in Maharashtra politics, possibly by stitching an alliance with the Congress before the Lok Sabha and state assembly polls next year.
Having lost all recent major elections bar one, the NCP’s political fortunes have been on a downslide for some time now. In the Legislative Council polls too, NCP-backed independent candidate Sandeep Bedse lost to the Shiv Sena’s Ashok Darade in Nashik as former party strongman Chhagan Bhujbal, just out on bail in a money-laundering case, reportedly backed the latter.
From exhorting farmers and Dalits to rise against the Devendra Fadnavis government to dabbling in caste politics, Pawar has tried every trick in the book to resurrect his party. But nothing seems to have worked. Last December, he told farmers to stop paying utility bills until the state government’s promised loan waiver and remunerative crop prices were sorted out. On January 26, the NCP strongman even came down a few rungs to address a rally in Mumbai alongside secondand third-tier leaders from other parties. Then, in a televised conversation with Raj Thackeray in March, Pawar backed the MNS chief’s view that Gujaratis were dominating
Maharashtrians in Mumbai. And just last month, he angered Brahmins in Pune by refusing to wear the traditional pagdi that symbolises the community.
Political observers point out that Pawar has also been playing his own party leaders against one another. He backed Dhananjay Munde, a young OBC leader from Marathwada, as leader of the opposition in the legislative council to check Bhujbal’s influence. But he later ensured that other Maratha leaders stayed aloof from an election to the local body constituency [a constituency in which the local corporates elect a candidate to the legislative council] and Munde was blamed for the NCP’s defeat.
That apart, the NCP has also been struggling to keep its flock together. In June, Niranjan Davkhare, a young legislator from Thane and son of Pawar’s close aide, Vasant Davkhare, defected to the BJP. Alleging that he felt “suffocated” in the NCP, he claimed that several leaders were waiting to switch sides.
So going with the Congress is perhaps the only way for Pawar to bail out the NCP. But the Congress is yet to reveal its own position. Although Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan seems to favour an alliance, Mallikarjun Kharge, newly appointed AICC man in-charge of the state, is reportedly unconvinced.
Hemant Desai, a Mumbai-based analyst, says Pawar’s hectic machinations are a last-ditch shot at active politics before he hangs up his boots.
A CONGRESS ALLIANCE IS PERHAPS THE ONLY WAY FOR PAWAR TO BAIL OUT THE NCP