Is Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar sulking? Or, is he trying to garner sympathy for himself? Going by his recent public statements, the latter seems to be the case.
When Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently visited Mumbai to take part in Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, Ajit chose not to meet him along with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. When his absence became news, he met Shah at the airport.
It was reported that Ajit asked Shah to make him chief minister if the BJP-led alliance retained power after the assembly polls, due in November. Ajit later denied the report, saying he only discussed problems faced by farmers.
Apparently, Ajit has realised that his Nationalist Congress Party faces an uphill task in the polls. He recently said he did not have to ask for permission while distributing party tickets as he was the saheb (boss). It was a veiled reference to his uncle, former chief minister Sharad Pawar, with whom he had parted ways in February last year. In response, Amol Kolhe, MP, who belongs to the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP that opposes Ajit, retorted that Maharashtra knows only two sahebs―Balasaheb Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.
A leader of Ajit’s NCP in Pune district told THE WEEK that the party could get to contest 60 to 65 seats in the polls. “I met him (Ajit) a few days ago; instead of assembly elections, we spoke about elections in sugar cooperatives. But 60 to 65 seats is what we are aiming to contest [in the assembly polls],” said the leader.
Ajit recently said that he was ready to step aside if the people of Baramati, the assembly constituency that he has represented for more than three decades, wanted another leader to be their representative. This led to speculation regarding his future with Baramati.
Sunil Tatkare, MP and state NCP president, said there was no question of Ajit not contesting from Baramati. “Ajit dada says things in his way, but as far as the party is concerned, he will contest,” said Tatkare.
Said the NCP leader from Pune: “He took the defeat of his wife, Sunetra, in the Lok Sabha elections as his own defeat, and hence the statement.” Sunetra, who contested the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, was defeated by Supriya Sule, incumbent MP and daughter of Sharad Pawar.
NCP leaders say Ajit will win the assembly polls in Baramati even if he does not campaign. “The people of Baramati are very clear―Supriya tai in the Lok Sabha and Ajit dada in the assembly,” said the leader from Pune.
Ajit also said recently that he had realised that politics should not enter one’s family. He said he had realised his mistake―apparently, of fielding Sunetra against Sule in the Lok Sabha polls.
A senior leader of the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP said Ajit was afraid that he might have to face his nephew Yugendra Pawar in Baramati. Yugendra, who is the son of Ajit’s younger brother Srinivas, is planning to launch a yatra in Baramati.
As the polls draw near, there have been desertions in the NCP’s ranks. Bhagyashri Atram, daughter of Minister Dharmrao Atram of Gadchiroli, recently joined Sharad Pawar’s NCP. Legislators such as Atul Benke, who represents Junnar in Pune district, have been perceived to be preparing to shift loyalties. Benke recently met Pawar publicly.
Ajit wants a respectable number of seats to contest, though he is aware of his party’s limitations. The party had got a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls. It could win only one of the four seats contested―only Tatkare, who contested from Raigad, managed to win.
The NCP leader from Pune said all major leaders who would get the party ticket from Ajit have the capacity to win on their own. He was doubtful of Chhagan Bhujbal’s prospects. A veteran leader and minister, Bhujbal has been against giving reservation to the Maratha community from the quota allotted to the Other Backward Classes.
Mahesh Tapase, chief spokesperson of the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, said the RSS had held Ajit responsible for the BJP’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls. Apparently, the RSS felt that many people in the BJP did not support the alliance with the NCP.
Veteran journalist Ravikiran Deshmukh said Ajit had become a liability for the BJP, as its cadre was not comfortable with the alliance. Also, said Deshmukh, Ajit had thought that he would be able to find a niche in state politics that was separate from his uncle’s. But the Lok Sabha polls showed that it had not worked out. Tatkare won because of his own base and network. So Ajit is now trying to garner sympathy for himself by claiming that it was a mistake to mix family and politics, said Deshmukh.
According to him, Ajit tried to claim credit for the Ladki Bahin Scheme, but the Shiv Sena, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, thwarted it. In cabinet meetings, ministers from the Sena and the NCP locked horns over using the chief minister’s name while referring to the scheme. According to the NCP, the scheme was introduced in the budget by Ajit Pawar, who holds the finance portfolio.
“There is no future for Ajit Pawar in this alliance. It was the BJP who got him on board the saffron alliance. Now they (the BJP) will have to create a suitable space for him,” said Deshmukh, who was media adviser to Devendra Fadnavis when he was chief minister.
Arwind Tiwari, general secretary of the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, said that Ajit’s assessment of himself had grossly gone wrong. Ajit, said Tiwari, thought he had established himself as a leader in his own right, but actually he was on borrowed political capital. He relied on the stature of his uncle. “During the Lok Sabha polls, his political stock got diminished in his own constituency. At one time, he had successfully created a perception that if Supriya Sule has to get elected to the Lok Sabha, she would have to be dependent on Ajit Pawar,” said Tiwari. But now Sule has emerged as a leader in her own right, and Ajit had lost relevance, he said.
According to Anil Deshmukh, former minister and leader of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Ajit has been reduced to sticking to the script prepared by his newly appointed poll strategist Naresh Arora. “If Arora tells him to apologise, he does it. If Arora says, ‘Wear a pink jacket’, he does it. He is the president of his party, and he is acting according to Arora’s script,” said Deshmukh.
Jayant Patil, state president of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, also said Arora was calling the shots in Ajit’s NCP. Patil recently told journalists in Nagpur that Arora had told Ajit not to say or do anything on an impulse. “Ajit Pawar of today is not the Ajit Pawar he was earlier,” said Patil.
He also said the BJP would want to distance itself from Ajit, given the Lok Sabha poll results. According to Patil, the BJP may even ask Ajit’s NCP to go it alone in the assembly polls, and think about a tie-up post elections, if needed.