The Maha Picture | 'Pawar' Hitter NCP Chief Throws Others Off Their Game, Galvanises Cadre

May 2, 2023: This is a date Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders and workers won’t forget in their lives. Because, on that day, they heard and saw the unexpected – the supreme leader of their party resigning as the National Chief.

The announcement came as a shocker for the party and its cadre. The quitting of a leader, who is the architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and was seen making efforts to get all anti-Bharatiya Janata Party parties on one national platform, from the highest position of the party was not acceptable to party workers who later protested against the decision and forced him to rescind it.

From a political angle, the move is a story of how Pawar killed several birds with one stone.

PICTURE PERFECT

Let’s play back the day Pawar resigned. After the announcement, leaders and party workers ‘gheraoed’ him to convince him to change his decision. Visually, it was picture perfect frame for the NCP — the top brass of the party around Pawar. This shows how Pawar again established his control over the party.

MVA, BJP & THACKERAY

After the debacle of the MVA, there were unconfirmed reports about how the BJP is keen to have another partner to win maximum Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.

Somehow, the BJP doesn’t have the confidence in Eknath Shinde’s Sena, which is still struggling to establish its roots in the state, except Thane. There was a feeling in the MVA that post the split in the Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray’s camp will become weaker, but it didn’t turn out that way. Rather, Thackeray started getting good emotional support from people. Thackeray and his leaders hit the roads and gained the confidence of people. This didn’t go really well within the NCP, because, henceforth, if the MVA comes back to power and wins maximum seats, Thackeray will claim the post of Chief Minister, which is not acceptable to a group of leaders from the NCP. Hence one camp of the NCP, which was in touch with the BJP for a possible tie-up, had approached NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who enjoys a powerful position in the party.

Ajit Pawar, who already has that dark spot of the 2019 early morning swearing-in with Devendra Fadnavis, asked the group to approach Sharad Pawar with their proposal to join hands with the BJP. It was a shock for Pawar to see party leaders coming to him with this proposal. Pawar straightway denied their proposal, but he was aware of what was brewing.

Hence came the next challenge or curbing it.

NO SPLIT

People leaving or joining the party is not a new scenario for Pawar, but not allowing his party to split the Shiv Sena way was a task. With his resignation, he has showed everyone that he still enjoys supremacy in the party, He sent a direct message to leaders who had packed their bags to join the BJP and also indicated to the BJP not to use the strategy they used for the Shiv Sena.

Pawar had admitted that he didn’t think about his party workers before taking the decision of resignation, as they may not have allowed it. Ultimately, he took it back due to the pressure from party workers.

COMING UP NEXT

In the coming future, Pawar may distribute the power between his daughter Supriya Sule and nephew Ajit. Sule may get the national responsibility and Ajit may get the responsibility of the state. But from the example of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), it is evident that leaders who have got control over the state, have control over the party. Despite Pawar declining the request of groups of leaders to join hands with the BJP, ahead of the upcoming general elections, some may turn coats at the last moment due the fear of the Central agencies.

With his resignation saga, Pawar has created space in the hearts and minds of young party workers again, with a clear agenda to fight the BJP head-on. Pawar has now got the confidence that the young brigade of his party is with him, which has boosted his energy levels.

He has started his tours of rural Maharashtra and is making speeches against the BJP. The Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana criticised Pawar for failing to groom the next generation of leadership.

The message which Pawar gave in one of the party’s functions in Mumbai, a few days before his resignation, that “time has come to turn the bread" was clearly not an indication of his resignation, but was for those leaders who have kept their bags ready to board the other bus.

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