PAWAR GAMES

Last week saw the revival of an old story when the political rumour mill claimed that Sharad Pawar would replace Sonia Gandhi as the UPA chairperson. Certainly with Sonia Gandhi taking a step back, Pawar is the tallest leader in the UPA. But the NCP is not the largest party, and Pawar is well aware of this limitation. However, there is a certain disquiet amongst the UPA partners as to who will lead the opposition alliance against the BJP. Rahul Gandhi doesn’t seem to carry much clout, not as leader of the Congress and also not as a reliable ally. It’s not just the party’s drubbing in Bihar that pulled down the alliance, but Akhilesh Yadav also blames his alliance with the Congress for sabotaging his chances in the 2017 UP polls. Mamata Bannerjee is not keen to tie up with the Congress in West Bengal and it remains to be seen what kind of a bargain the DMK will strike with the Congress for the Tamil Nadu polls. Interestingly, it was Pawar who recently spoke to Rahul’s lack of consistency. And, therefore, while the Congress, and even the NCP has denied the rumours that Pawar will replace Sonia as the UPA chairperson, it hasn’t scotched the speculation. For as the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut said on the subject: “Politics is unpredictable. You never know what will happen next.” While Congress leaders claim that the role of chairperson should be given to a member of the largest party in the coalition, they forget two things. One that the UPA is not a formal organisation with a hard and fast Constitution, but a loose coalition of like-minded parties. Second, as Rasheed Kidwai, author and political commentator points out, when the National Front was formed the chairmanship went to N.T. Ramarao, even though the TDP was not the largest party, the Janata Party was. The real question remains: did the NCP overplay its hand by going public with its plans?