'Ajit Pawar's speech leaves no room for reconciliation.'
Last year Eknath Shinde with 40 MLAs split his party the Shiv Sena and became the chief minister of Maharashtra with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Now Ajit Pawar has followed in Shinde's footsteps.
On July 5 he got 35 MLAs on his side and split the Nationalist Congress Party which his uncle, Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar, had formed in 1999.
Just like Shinde did, Ajit Pawar too has moved the Election Commission for the party name and symbol.
On Wednesday, both uncle and nephew called their supporters to different venues in Mumbai in a show of strength but what mattered the most was the headcount of MLAs.
And it is here that Ajit Pawar scored a huge victory over his uncle. He got 32 MLAs on his side while Pawar Sr got 18 MLAs at the last count.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to Vijay Chormare, the political commentator who has long followed the Pawars' political trajectory, to find out if this marks the end of Sharad Pawar's long political career.
The first of a two-part interview.
Sharad Pawar's meeting shows that he is ready to take up the fight with his nephew at the age of 82, but some 40+ MLAs are with Ajit Pawar. Can he save his party from Ajit Pawar, given such numbers?
If you recall the first day when the rebellion came out in the open, Sharad Pawar said he will not fight a legal battle for the party, but rather go to the public and fight his battle.
This would be his stance in future also because at this moment it looks like more MLAs are with Ajit Pawar than Sharad Pawar.
Ajit Pawar needs a 2/3rd majority (to avoid the anti-defection law), or 35 to 36 MLAs, and he will get that.
This decision will finally go to the Election Commission of India.
The way the Shiv Sena decision was taken after its split, the NCP split too will go on similar lines.
Therefore, Sharad Pawar did not want to fight the legal battle, but other leaders who are with him decided to start a legal battle (to keep the name and symbol of the party) against Ajit Pawar.
Now, this matter will first go to Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, and it looks like his decision will go in Ajit Pawar's favour. This will be challenged in the courts and it will be a long legal battle.
Sharad Pawar did not attack Ajit Pawar much except saying that he will not go with the BJP.
(Wednesday's) meeting was all about who has got how many MLAs on his side, and everyone wanted to know the answer to this question. The issue was not who can get more crowd at their meeting.
If that was the case, Sharad Pawar had already proved it on Monday at Karad as a huge crowd accompanied him when he went to pay tribute to his late mentor Yashwantrao Chavan.
Now it looks like 2/3rd of the MLAs are with Ajit Pawar. Till yesterday (July 4), there was the possibility and doubt that the uncle and nephew can come together, but Ajit Pawar's speech leaves no room for reconciliation now.
It looks like Ajit Pawar was deeply hurt due to by his uncle's political manoeuvring, and he spoke out against Sharad Pawar from the heart.
He made a big revelation today by stating that when he joined hands with Devendra Fadnavis to form a government in Maharashtra for a brief period, it was with the blessings of Sharad Pawar.
There was a curtain on this issue as only the half-truth was known.
Last week, Fadnavis said that he will soon reveal why the BJP formed a government with the NCP in 2019, and today that truth was revealed by Ajit Pawar.
He said in Marathi, 'Pratekcha kaad asto (everybody has their own time)', indicating his uncle Sharad Pawar must retire from politics. It was like a direct attack.
Ajit Pawar knows in politics you have a peak time of work between 60 and 75 years of age. (Ajit Pawar turns 64 on July 22).
He always had this grudge that he could not become the chief minister of Maharashtra and had to work as deputy chief minister which is second in command, therefore he spoke out about Sharad Pawar's retirement.
Supriya Sule, Sharad Pawar's daughter, stated after Ajit Pawar's speech in a different auditorium that even Amitabh Bachchan is 80 and Ratan Tatam who is older than Sharad Pawar at the age of 85, has not retired but running India's most successful company.
This is the first time someone has come out in the open and said that Sharad Pawar must retire, and that too his nephew Ajit Pawar.
Now, it is an aar-paar ki ladaai between chacha-bhatija (do or die battle between uncle and nephew).
What were the most surprising points in Ajit Pawar's speech?
The first is the 2019 incident which I spoke about, and the second thing is telling Sharad Pawar to retire.
And thirdly, he exposed Sharad Pawar's past, telling the public how many times he has changed parties and how many times he rebelled against his own party (in his younger days).
He also stated that leaders like Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee were successful in forming their own governments in their respective states, but the NCP could never do that. And this statement was a direct attack on Sharad Pawar.
He blamed him for the NCP not growing beyond a maximum limit of 71 MLAs (in 2004) out of 288 MLA seats in Maharashtra.
He also felt cheated that in 2004, though the NCP got 71 seats and the Congress 69, it was the Congress which got the post of chief minister, which hurt Ajit Pawar the most.
This was not the first time he made this statement. He said this in an interview to Lokmat some months back.
He made it clear that he wanted the NCP to get the chief minister's post in 2004 and it was not necessary that he should have become the CM because he was too junior in the party at that time. He was okay with any NCP leader becoming the chief minister of Maharashtra.
Does it mean that Sharad Pawar never wanted to make the NCP a bigger party in Maharashtra and he put the brakes on its growth?
Ajit Pawar said in his speech that Sharad Pawar is not as strong a politician as he is projected because he has never been able to get more than 71 MLAs elected in the state.
He then compared him to Mamata Banerjee who formed the Trinamool Congress government on her own strength in West Bengal.
He then said that Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Mayawati (Bahujan Samaj Party) too formed governments in Uttar Pradesh on their own strength.
Many other regional leaders too formed governments in different states, so why did this not happen in Maharashtra under Sharad Pawar's leadership?
He (Ajit Pawar) questioned him on this issue and raised a point to the public to ponder over.
Is it true that Sharad Pawar ditched his mentor Y B Chavan in politics and that history is repeating itself?
No, Sharad Pawar never backstabbed Y B Chavan.
Y B Chavan went back to the Congress from the Congress-U (named after Devraj Urs), which was against Indira Gandhi.
Sharad Pawar being his political protégé did not switch to the Congress like his mentor though many people felt he would.
There were 56 MLAs in the Congress-U out of whom 50 MLAs went back to the Congress with Y B Chavan, but Sharad Pawar preferred to stay on in the Congress-U with only five MLAs with him.
Later, in the 1985 Maharashtra assembly elections, which Sharad Pawar contested on the Congress-S ticket, he got 50-55 seats for his party. In 1986 Rajiv Gandhi offered him the chief minister's post, so he merged his party with the Congress, as his problem was with Indira Gandhi and not Rajiv Gandhi.
Why then is he considered as a backstabber in politics?
It was the 1978 episode that people talk about, but then again there is no truth in these allegations.
There were two Congresses in Maharashtra at that time, the Congress-U and the Indira Congress. They had a coalition government in Maharashtra and Vasantdada Patil was the chief minister.
Nashikrao Tirpude was the deputy chief minister. Sharad Pawar was a part of Vasantdada Patil's Congress-U.
Many times Tirpude used to insult Vasantdada Patil, which led to a rift between the two parties. Therefore, Sharad Pawar took 36 MLAs from the Congress-U and joined hands with the Janata Party which included the Jan Sangh (the BJP's political parent) and the Peasants and Workers Party. These three parties formed a new government. Sharad Pawar was just 38 years old.
From that point of time this tag of backstabber stuck to Sharad Pawar.
In 1999, he revolted against Sonia Gandhi over her foreign origins so you cannot call that backstabbing.
Ajit Pawar highlighted in his speech how Sharad Pawar turned against Sonia Gandhi.
Ajit Pawar joining hands with the BJP is because of the pressure of central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) on him.
75 percent of the NCP ministers are on the radar of central agencies.
All these accused NCP leaders had only two options, either join the BJP or go to jail.
This was one of the reasons for sure, but to dilute all those facts Ajit Pawar blurted out against Sharad Pawar, giving a different twist to his parting ways with his uncle.
- Part 2 of the Interview: 'Ajit Pawar can't escape from BJP's cage'
