Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar is experiencing the saying that man who lives with a sword will die by the sword. He is the past master of many rebellions now felled by rebellion, led by his nephew Ajit Pawar, in his party.
Here is a man who two months back announced the political succession in his party and also announced his intention not to contest any future elections is now moving across the land scape of Maharashtra fighting for his lost political space in Maharashtra politics. He knew that once he lost his base in the state his stature at the national level will diminish. At a time when Sharad Pawar was making all the political moves to somehow get the tag of prospective PM candidate of opposition to take on Modi in 2024 elections he is beaten by a political maneuvering of BJP through Ajit Pawar.
In politics they say a day is a too long a period, so the last two months period where Sharad Pawar is making moves for his career is certainly too long and decisive which saw the complete transformation in Maharashtra, pushing him into sidelines. In May Sharad Pawar announced his intention not to contest any more elections and passing over the party baton to his daughter Supriya Sule. Media called it a clever ‘check mate’ the intention of Ajit Pawar to join hand with BJP. That all powerful, super tactician Sharad Pawar image now lay shattered as majority of MLAs in the party moved away from the senior Pawar and are happy in sharing power with BJP.
Sharad Pawar is not new to the rebellions in the parties. In fact it is a perfect art he followed in his political career. He rebelled as a Congress man against Indira Gandhi in post emergency situation. Sharad Pawar broke from Indira Congress and joined hands with the Janata Party group to form become CM of Maharashtra at the young age of 38. That was a power hungry rebellion and he succeeded in that and survived by rejoining Congress. He was brought in to Congress fold by Rajiv Gandhi and post Rajiv’s assassination Sharad Pawar is the aspirant for PM chair but PV Narasimha Rao took away that. His PM ambitions got once again scuttled when Sonia Gandhi expressed her intention to take that position. Sharad Pawar sensing his loss rebelled again to come out of Congress questioning the nationality of Sonia Gandhi and forming NCP. Sharad Pawar has no qualms in sharing power under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi within UPA.
Thus he remained as a self-declared candidate for PM but not to be. The latest developments in NCP and fall of Sharad Pawar is an end game for the 82 year old veteran Maratha warrior. He is facing many questions from his former close aides. He is questioned on the continuation in politics at 82 by his own nephew Ajit Pawar. Chagan Bhujbal is exposing the caste mentality of Sharad Pawar. His close friend Prafulla Patel exposed the backdoor talks Sharad Pawar was having with BJP and his intention to share power with BJP at an opportune time. Running the party as a private family concern is questioned by many MLAs. The common allegation against Sharad Pawar was his ‘Banyan tree’ nature of not allowing other to grow under his shadow. The political ambitions NCP leaders is crushed under the whims and fancies of Pawar, the boss.
After waiting for so long the frustrated NCP leaders finally got the courage to topple their mentor Sharad Power and chose their own political path. Heart of hearts even Sharad Pawar was also thinking about the same political path, but externally maintains a different posture so that he could enjoy the patronize of the non-BJP parties. With the fall of Sharad Pawar the opposition group is more worried about their unity and the collective agenda drafted for the Bangalore meet. Patna meet being the preliminary one, the opposition parties led by the Congress to take their collective strength to new heights through Bangalore meet. Now all that lay shattered as one major group and most senior and experienced Sharad Pawar lay politically injured in Maharashtra. Besides Sharad Pawar is always a suspect in the opposition group as he is known as a well versed with the art of impossible politics work in his favour.
To cap their Maharashtra political developments worry the opposition group is staring at the fast developing Bihar politics where Nitish Kumar is under strain. Nitish politics are like Sharad Pawars, opportunistic, self-centered with an eye on his position. Both of them are capable of doing political business with any ones, sans ideology. Perhaps Nitish Kumar is the only CM in India who is sitting in the chair not being his party enjoying strength in both the houses in the state. By numbers Nitish Party JDU is third in position in Assembly and second in position by numbers in the Council. His vulnerability in number game is well known. RJD which is number one by numbers in Bihar Assembly has taken Deputy CM post for the purpose of consolidating their party through power.
The voices in JDU are growing louder for “Tejaswi Yadav as CM” and are waiting for a suitable time. Meanwhile the BJP is fishing for JDU legislatures who are not happy at the politics of ‘caged Nitish’ which are benefitting the RJD legislatures rather than JDU. This dissenting group yet to crystalize but sure to organize with the blessing of BJP. If that happens as BJP is hoping to happen before the Bangalore meet then the combined opposition strength gets reduced. Then the entire blame for the disintegration of much hyped opposition unit will lay on Pawar and that is the sad end for the over six decade old political career of Sharad Pawar.
(Author is retired professor and occasional contributor for dailies and magazines on politics and environmental issues. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at duggarajusrinivasarao@gmail.com)