When NCP workers and leaders gathered for party chief Sharad Pawar’s book launch on Tuesday, they had no idea that their mentor would announce his retirement.
As the stunned audience tried to make sense of the sudden decision, party workers began sloganeering and demanded that Pawar take back his resignation.
For emotional party workers, seeing the entire Pawar clan and top brass of the NCP on stage was a reassurance they had been seeking for days, especially amid speculations of a possible split in the party.
However, the setting was unimaginable. The question on everyone’s minds was if Pawar’s decision to step down was due to pressure on him from within the party or if it was a show of strength by the veteran neta. While political circles are abuzz, Pawar’s move has proved to all Maha Vikas Aghadi stakeholders and the BJP that he still holds control over the NCP and has the support of all party leaders.
According to sources within NCP, a delegation of party leaders that went to meet Sharad Pawar at Silver Oaks asked him to consider if he should remain the national president and instead appoint a working president who will work closely with the warhorse for the next few years.
If Pawar agrees, it will be interesting to see who he picks for the post. After Sharad Pawar, his nephew Ajit Pawar has a good hold over the party which has benefited from his aggressive working style.
However, the senior leader faces a dilemma — Will he hand over the entire functioning to his nephew when his daughter is also in active politics and harbours an ambition to grow?
Maharashtra has seen two such instances when political compulsions forced nephews to turn against their uncles. One was Raj Thackeray who formed his own party after differences with his uncle and Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray while the second was Dhananjay Munde who left BJP amid a tussle with his uncle, the late Gopinath Munde. It seems senior Pawar is trying to avoid a similar situation that causes the NCP to break.
In his book that was launched on Tuesday, Pawar has written that there are people in his party who wanted to join hands with the BJP way back in 2014. While nothing was discussed formally, he said informal deliberations did take place with a few leaders. Pawar also made it clear that he was not part of the discussion and was of the opinion that NCP should not join hands with BJP as the latter can’t be trusted.
When the BJP approached NCP after the 2019 state election, it was Pawar who informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it won’t be possible for him and his party to join hands with BJP to give a stable government in Maharashtra.
However, there is a buzz in the political corridors of Maharashtra that one of the reasons behind Pawar’s decision could be that he never wanted to join hands with BJP under his leadership.
In his speech, the senior leader also said he had three years remaining as a Rajya Sabha MP and he wanted to focus on work during his tenure which would hamper the functioning of the party. This could be a hint that Pawar has opened channels for talks between the NCP’s next generation of leadership and the BJP.
Amid the melee, it would be interesting to see if Pawar reconsiders his decision, given that he has sought time from the agitated party workers. Pawar is not only one of the tallest leaders of Maharashtra but is also fighting against the BJP at the national level in the run-up to 2024 and trying to get all opposition parties on board for a united fight in the general elections.
So what will the NCP supremo do — Will he continue to be the national president and lead the party or will he pick his heir to groom as a leader in the future? Only time will tell.
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