Turncoats add confusion to Maharashtra polls

Turncoats have not only created a battle for survival for Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, these leaders have also added much confusion in the minds of electorates as to who is representing which party.

Akshy Narkar, a scholar of social science at University of Mumbai, told The Sunday Guardian: “From local workers to legislators, hundreds of leaders have left the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra which has created a lot of confusion among the voters. The voters of Maharashtra are still figuring out who belongs to which party. For example, most of the NCP’S flag bearers in the sugarcane rich belt of western Maharashtra region which has been providing political capital to the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, have switched sides.”

“The NCP has lost even its core patriarchs in the western Maharashtra region like the Mohite-patil clan of Solapur, the royal family of Bhosales in Satara, the Mahadik clans in Kolhapur and leaders like Jaykumar Gore, Dilip Sopal, Rashmi Bagal and Madan Bhosale have now switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party or Shiv Sena. All these leaders are now approaching voters, seeking their support for the BJP or Sena and people of Maharashtra are facing difficulties in even recognising who belongs to which party,” Narkar said. Mass-scale defections have wrecked the NCP and the party is facing a battle for survival. Pundits have even predicted a possible merger of NCP with its original fold—the Congress—from where it originated. Even political leaders in Maharashtra seem to be accepting the fact that there is confusion among the voters. NCP spokesperson Majeed Menon echoed the same and said: “There is so much confusion in Maharashtra as to who is representing which party. A leader was heard telling the high command that he has better claim over his rival because he is four hours old in the party as against his two-hour-old rival!” In Maharashtra, most of the turncoats have been awarded Assembly tickets from the BJP or Sena and these leaders are in fray to seek a mandate for their new party. Vishnu Khandekar, another scholar from the University of Mumbai told The Sunday Guardian: “The ideology has taken a back seat in Maharashtra’s electoral politics and much focus is being paid on win-ability. The core critics of Sena and BJP have also joined them in the poll battle and most of them got rewards in turn. For instance, former Congress leaders Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Jaykumar Gore, Kalidas Kolambkar, Harshawardhan Patil and former NCP MLAS Shivendra Bhosale, Vaibhav Pichad, Sandeep Naik, Ranajagjitsinh Patil have got BJP ticket.” “However, the shifting ideology is easier for political leaders than supporters, but there is no doubt that the BJP has emerged as a new hegemon in Indian politics and that will help the party in assimilating the inflow of leaders of different ideologies,” Khandekar added. After Congress leader Salman Khurshid set the cat amongst the pigeons by stating the obvious—“our biggest problem is our leader (i.e. Rahul Gandhi) has walked away” instead of staying and introspecting over the Lok Sabha loss; other Congress leaders have stepped in with their views. Some chided Khurshid for going public; others like Scindia seem to agree that there is a need for introspection. Another young leader, speaking off the record, added that the leadership question was not yet decided with Sonia Gandhi merely filling the gap, and that the Congress should go ahead and hold elections. The view for an introspection at the very least, a shake-up at the most, has begun to do the rounds and the murmurs will only grow louder after this round of Assembly elections where the Congress is not expected to win a single state. But interestingly, Khurshid took to social media to answer his critics. In a Facebook post he stated, “Some colleagues in the party said these remarks hurt the party. It will hurt to say let us find out why we are hurt. It will not hurt if we continue to suffer hurt caused by the adversary...to pretend we have no pain is silly and maybe even fatal.” And for good measure he quotes W.B. Yeats: “The falcon cannot hear the falconer!” With Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari at least the Congress has a good debating team even if it lacks on ground leaders.