Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 2: A desire for the reunion of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party is being aired from both the factions in Maharashtra with one such prayer made on the New Year’s Day standing out.
It was made by the mother of the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, Asha Pawar who is hurt by the split in the family missing her brother-in-law Sharad Pawar. She visited the temple town of Pandharpur and prayed for the reunion of Ajit and his uncle and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar.
“All disputes should end… Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar should reunite,” Asha Pawar told reporters after visiting the Vithal-Rukmini temple in the temple town. Sounding absolutely contradictory, she added that she had also prayed for “all wishes of Ajit Pawar” to come true.
She was not the only one wishing for “reunion” less than a month after the Maharashtra election results gave Ajit an edge over Sharad Pawar, under whose shadow the nephew had long stayed — and finally rebelled against.
Praful Patel, a senior member of the NCP and hitherto a close associate of Sharad Pawar before he sided with Ajit during the split, said: “Sharad Pawar is our deity. We have a high degree of respect for him. If the Pawar family comes together, it will make us extremely happy. I consider myself a member of the Pawar family.”
Narhari Zirwal, an NCP MLA, echoed the same, saying “it felt odd to have left Sharad Pawar saheb (after the split in June 2023).” “Many feel likewise. Now I will go to him and urge him (and Ajit) to come together. Pawar saheb has been relentlessly working for people from different sections of the society. And he continues to do so.”
NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari said the uncle and nephew could still come together if “both make the effort”. But, he added, some NCP (SP) leaders like Jitendra Awhad (Sharad Pawar’s key aide) and Rohit Pawar (Sharad Pawar’s grand nephew) might be a “hurdle” in that. “They will never like the two coming together… But Asha tai’s prayers are the prayer of every karyakarta of both NCP groups…We all feel we should come together,” said Mitkari.
Asked about this, Ahwad said it was not within his prerogative to make any decision regarding this, and that the Pawars would have to decide for themselves. ”If Asha Pawar is saying that Pawars should come together, then what can I say? It is their family matter. They will have to take the call…What I think does not matter,” he said.
The BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said his party had no problem if the two factions of the NCP unite. If the two Pawars were coming together, there was “no reason” for the BJP to “object” to the same, he said. “They have to decide.”
Ajit had split from the NCP in June 2023, taking 40 MLAs with him, later joining hands with the BJP and Shiv Sena and become a part of the Mahayuti government.
In the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November, the NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar finished the last among the six major parties in the fray, winning only 10 of the 86 seats it contested. The two NCPs squared off against each other in 36 constituencies, with the NCP winning 29, including the Pawar clan turf of Baramati.
The outcome of the Assembly elections in which the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance was badly mauled, has also started creating holes among the parties.
Struggling to maintain its presence in the Pune city politics, the Shiv Sena (UBT) suffered a setback with five former party corporators set to join the BJP this week. Two of them announced their decision to leave the Sena UBT on Thursday. The Sena UBT had 10 corporators elected to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in the previous five-year term for which elections were held in 2017. The term expired in 2022. The civic elections have been delayed due to legal issues and are likely to be held in 2025.
Of the 10 former corporators, only one Pramod Bhangire had sided with the Eknath Shinde faction after the split in the party while the remaining former corporators stayed with Uddhav Thackeray during the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. A few days ago, five former corporators Bala Oswal, Vishal Dhanwade, Sangeeta Thosar, Pallavi Jawale and Prachi Alhat met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
“I have made my decision and I’m firm on it. I will work for the people of the city,” said Oswal while declaring his decision to quit the Sena UBT and join the BJP.
Dhanwade too reached out to his supporters to declare his decision to leave the Sena UBT and join the BJP. “I have made a decision in the New Year to join the BJP. It was painful to take the decision to leave the Sena UBT,” he said.
“I had never thought even in my dreams to quit the Sena UBT. I am pained by leaving the party which I loved and worked to strengthen. The party gave me love and recognition as a politician but there are many reasons for leaving it. I have respect for the party, Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya Thackeray. I don’t have any grievances against them but the party is directionless in Pune, which is very disturbing.”
Former Sena UBT corporator Avinash Salve had quit the party and joined the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections. Former legislator Mahadeo Babar too quit the Sena UBT after being denied ticket to contest the Assembly elections. But, former city MNS chief Vasant More had joined the Sena UBT ahead of the Assembly elections.
