Fadnavis Criticises Ajit Pawar for Highlighting Sharad Pawar’s Age to “Attract Sympathy”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 7: In a surprising comment, the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was said to be very cosy with the Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, on Friday strongly criticised those who he said were trying to “attract sympathy” by highlighting the age of the party founder leader Sharad Pawar.
Knowing well that it was Ajit Pawar who had a jibe at his uncle asking him to “retire” from politics because he was now 83, Fadnavis said he hoped to see Sharad Pawar live till 100 and criticised what he called attempts by his followers to “attract sympathy” by playing on his age. The same jibe a day later was also repeated by another NCP entrant in the Shinde ministry, Chhagan Bhujbal.
“Shard Pawar has our good wishes. I hope he lives till 100. He can be in politics as long as he wants. But this attempt by some of his followers to attract sympathy by highlighting his age is not right,” Fadnavis said at a news conference, sitting next to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The comments come amid a back-and-forth between Sharad Pawar’s camp and members of the breakaway unit of his party led by Ajit Pawar that has joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government over the 83-year-old’s age.
At a party meeting two days ago, Ajit Pawar appeared to question his uncle’s leadership of the party he now wants to take over. “In other parties, leaders retire after an age. In BJP, leaders retire at 75, when are you going to stop? You should also give new people a chance. If we make mistakes, tell us. Your age is 83, will you ever stop or not? You give us blessings,” Ajit Pawar, 63, had said. “Everybody has his innings. The most productive years are from 25 to 75 years,” said Ajit Pawar, who joined the Eknath Shinde-led government in a shock move on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the legal experts pointed out that going by the NCP party’s constitution, which by and large is followed by most of the political parties, Ajit Pawar’s claim that he was elected the party national president on June 30, was “untrue.” If he was really elected the chief, the process should have been started by his faction at least a fortnight earlier when the entire group was very much part of the party and one of the leader Praful Patel was appointed one of the working presidents.
The process of selecting a chief of the NCP is a time-consuming one, going by the party’s rulebook. It is also one in which the party president (Sharad Pawar) has to be thoroughly involved since he is part of the working committee. Given the timeline required for election of the President, the process to elect Ajit Pawar as the party chief – which according to the faction took place on June 30 – should have started at least two weeks before.
Praful Patel, a former loyalist of Sharad Pawar and now a key leader in the rebel faction – had said the decision to switch camp was taken last week. This gives exactly five days to the Ajit Pawar faction to go through the whole procedure. Under the NCP constitution, the name of a candidate for the party’s top job has to be proposed by 10 members. The working committee has to set a date for the submission of names. The returning officer should get the proposal by a fixed date and the party president is involved throughout as he is a member of the working committee.
There should be a gap of at least seven days between name of candidates being made public and the voting date. The rules also say after the state committees’ voting, the ballot boxes have to be sent to the national committee, of which again, the party president is a part.
There is also an emergency provision, which says that in the absence of a party president, the senior-most general secretary has to step in. But it is not known if any of these rules were followed.
Sharad Pawar was emphatic that no such step was taken by the rebel group and he continued to be the national president of the party. Even Ajit Pawar himself had accepted him as the party’s president a day after he was sworn-in but changed his stand a day later claiming that he was “elected president” two days before he took the oath of office on Sunday.
Sharad Pawar has also written to the Election Commission, questioning why he was not informed that Ajit Pawar faction has written to them, laying claim to the party name and election symbol. “We would request this Hon’ble Commission to clarify if the purported petition by Shri Ajit Pawar was in fact filed on 30.06.2023 or on 05.07.2023 and backdated to 30.06.2023 (as per certain news reports). This information will be extremely important to us to formulate an appropriate reply,” Pawar wrote to the Commission.
In another development, the BJP National Secretary Pankaja Munde on Friday denied reports that she was joining another party, but said in the same breath that she has been ignored and was taking a two-month “holiday” to introspect what should be her next step. In the same breath, she also admitted that several BJP MLAs in the state were dissatisfied over the NCP faction joining the government but were afraid to speak out.
Asked about this, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said several people in his party have fought against the NCP for a long time and they won’t immediately accept the BJP’s alliance with it. Fadnavis said the BJP leadership would speak to Pankaja Munde and he believed she would continue to work for the party.
She threatened to file defamation case against the section of the media speculating her joining the Congress claiming that she had recently met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Ms Munde, who had lost the 2019 Assembly elections to her cousin Dhananjay Munde of the NCP and was appointed a BJP national secretary in 2020, said there are frequent reports of her being unhappy with the party. “Why do such discussions happen? Is it because I have not been invited to party functions several times? I have been ignored and the party should answer why,” she said.
“I have worked tirelessly for the party for 20 years and, despite that, my ethics are questioned and rumours are spread. I swear that I have never met Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi. I am not joining any other party. I will do whatever I want to do openly. BJP’s ideology is in my blood and I am walking on the path shown by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Gopinath Munde,” she added.
Alluding to the recent developments in Maharashtra politics, Ms Munde said “new experiments” are taking place these days. “The BJP has 105 MLAs. Many of them are dissatisfied but can’t speak out because they are afraid. Narendra Modi had said ‘na khaunga na khane dunga‘ (I won’t tolerate corruption) and people had liked that slogan.”
The BJP leader said she had congratulated Dhananjay Munde, her cousin who defeated her in the 2019 Assembly elections on NCP ticket, after he took oath as a minister in the Maharashtra cabinet this week. Ms Munde said she had always accepted the party’s decisions and never stabbed anyone in the back. “Ever since I lost in 2019, every time there are MLC elections or Rajya Sabha elections, there are reports that I am unhappy. I was given a form for the MLC elections and told minutes before submitting my nomination that I can’t do so. I accepted the party’s decision wholeheartedly. I never made personal attacks against anyone or stabbed anyone in the back,” she said.
