Uddhav resigned without fight: Sharad Pawar in book

Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar has said that Uddhav Thackeray failed to quell the discontent within his own party and resigned as Maharashtra chief minister without putting up a fight.

He and others also sensed a lack of political deftness in Thackeray, something which a chief minister needs, Pawar said in the revised version of his autobiography, released on Tuesday.

The formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena was not just a "power game" but strong riposte to the Bharatiya Janata Party's tendency to finish off the importance of other political parties by hook or by crook, Pawar wrote in the book.

It was expected that there would be attempts to destabilize the MVA government, but "we did not anticipate that there would be a storm within the Shiv Sena due to Uddhav Thackeray becoming chief minister," he said.

"The Sena leadership fell short in quelling this outburst of discontent," the veteran politician wrote.

"As Uddhav resigned without putting up a fight (after Eknath Shinde and other Sena MLAs rebelled against him in June 2022), the MVA's stint in power came to an end," he further said.

Noting that Thackeray's health became a constraint for him, the NCP leader noted that a chief minister needs "political acumen" and must remain well-informed about political goings-on, and "we all felt that these things were lacking."

He attributed it to Thackeray's inexperience.

While the middle class liked Thackeray's interaction with the people through Facebook Live during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was difficult to fathom why he chose to visit the Mantralaya, the government's headquarters, only twice during this period, Pawar wrote.

Pawar's revised Marathi autobiography Lok Maze Sangati (People Accompany Me) touches upon events post 2015 when the first edition of the book was published.