Wary of Cong, Pawar revives BJP contact

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar revived his contacts in the BJP after realising that the Congress’ real objective is to check his party in Maharashtra than to defeat in the Shiv SenaBJP combine and thereby regain lost ground. Mr Pawar had been watching the Congress’ moves closely ever since it sent Mr Prithviraj Chavan in Maharashtra as the chief minister about four years ago and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and vice- president Rahul Gandhi gave him full support.

The Congress and the NCP had defeated the Shiv Sena- BJP combine since 1999 because the state leaders in the two parties had worked together several years in the Cabinet of Mr Pawar, the late Vasantdada Patil and Sudhakarrao Naik. They had worked as a team when they fought off the challenge from the saffron combine. Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, Mr Ashok Chavan and the late Vilasrao Deshmukh could check the Shiv Sena- BJP combine because there was clarity about the objective. But Mr Prithviraj Chavan had no experience of working closely with the state leaders despite of winning three Lok Sabha elections.

He appears to have successfully convinced Mrs Gandhi and Mr Gandhi that the NCP is the main hurdle in the Congress’ revival in Maharashtra and unless the Sharad Pawar- led party is finished politically the Congress cannot regain its lost ground.

The Congress has been uncomfortable with its allies at the national level, ignoring the fact that it could check the BJP- led NDA earlier due to the unity of secular parties in states across the country. The Congress has not been friendly with UPA constituents as the party sees the NCP, Trinamul Congress, DMK and the National Conference as the main hurdles in its revival in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir. UPA leaders used to meet in the weekly Cabinet meetings of the Manmohan Singh government. There was no special effort to involve leaders of its allies in the decision- making process.