Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 5: Succumbing to the pressures from his party colleagues, veteran leader Sharad Pawar on Friday took a U-turn agreeing to stay on as the national president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in deference to the wishes of hundreds of his party workers.
Three days after his bombshell resignation, Sharad Pawar announced that he had changed his mind and that he would stay on as chief of the NCP as he “couldn’t disrespect the feelings of the masses.” “After reconsideration of everything, I announce that I will continue as the president of the party. I take back my previous decision,” Pawar, 82, said causing overjoyed partymen in Maharashtra to break into dance and celebrate with firecrackers.
Though his latest decision stalls any succession plan for now, Pawar said he believed “there is a need for a successor.” His resignation had fuelled reports that his daughter Supriya Sule would take over his role, though the question of Ajit Pawar’s role was left wide open.
“Even though I am continuing in the post of president, I am of the clear opinion that there has to be a succession plan for any post or responsibility in the organisation. In future, I will focus on making organizational changes in the party, assigning new responsibilities, creating new leadership,” Pawar said.
He asserted that his daughter didn’t agree to become the working president of NCP, an option that was in circulation as NCP leaders tried to reassure workers refusing to accept Mr Pawar quitting.
Pawar’s announcement came after the top NCP leaders who constituted the selection committee to finalise the name of the veteran leader’s successor as the party president, unanimously “rejected” his resignation and had urged him to consider the feelings of lakhs of workers and withdraw his resignation.
Following a half-hour meeting at the NCP office in Mumbai, party national vice-president and former Union Minister Praful Patel said: “The committee has passed a proposal unanimously rejecting Sharad Pawar’s decision to step down as NCP national president. Mr. Pawar is a pillar of the NCP. It is our wish he remain permanently in this position.”
Senior NCP leaders including Mr. Patel, Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Supriya Sule (Mr. Pawar’s daughter) and others then proceeded to convey the committee’s decision to Mr. Sharad Pawar at the latter’s ‘Silver Oak‘ residence.
Workers who had gathered outside the NCP headquarters since early morning celebrated the committee’s decision by bursting crackers and chanting slogans. The workers had been protesting for over three days demanding that Pawar should withdraw his resignation. Despite repeated appeals by the members of Pawar family, the workers did not budge and continued with the protest.
On Friday morning, a worker tried to self-immolate by pouring kerosene but was promptly stopped by other workers. NCP’s state unit chief Jayant Patil had to come out of the meeting to calm down workers.
In a press conference after the meeting, Patel said several political stalwarts across the country had called him and others expressing that Pawar should remain party president. “Not only leaders but workers of the party too expressed this opinion. We cannot ignore the emotions of party workers,” Patel said, adding that Pawar’s role at the national level was too important in the present situation.
Pawar too referred to the calls he received from national leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury. “Bringing various parties together is important when it comes to elections. I enjoy personal relationships with many who said that I was required for this,” Pawar said. He acknowledged the intense protests by party workers and leaders seeking withdrawal of his resignation. “I did expect a reaction, but I must admit that my assessment about the intensity of the reaction was wrong, I never expected this type of intensity,” he said.
The dramatic resignation and equally dramatic withdrawal capped three days of turmoil in the NCP, which reaffirmed the veteran politician’s absolute hold over the party he founded in 1999, amid talk of his nephew Ajit Pawar’s dalliance with the ruling BJP.
Ajit Pawar, 63, was absent when Pawar announced his U-turn and spoke of “organisational changes to the party, assigning new responsibilities and creating new leadership.” The senior Pawar, however, refused to read much into Ajit Pawar’s absence while asserting that his nephew had no plans to quit the party and join hands with the BJP as was being speculated.
“It’s not compulsory that all the leaders should be present. There are many who aren’t here. All of them were present in the committee meeting that happened in the morning and then even met me to inform that they have unanimously decided that we are together and we want you to continue.”
Sharad Pawar also denied that there was any truth to the rumours that any NCP leaders wanted to defect to other parties. “If anyone wants to go, no one can stop anyone. However, there’s no truth that people in our party want to go out,” he said.
He said he had spoken to his leaders and told them that new leaders should be given responsibility and opportunity at different levels of the party. He also revealed that his daughter Supriya Sule, a member of parliament, had refused to become the working president of the NCP when some leaders suggested it during the discussion.
Sharad Pawar said his nephew Ajit Pawar, a former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, was the only NCP leader who had an idea that he was going to resign and that’s why he supported his decision. He said that Ajit Pawar was not upset with him or the party. Ajit Pawar, he said, “had an idea that I am going to resign, that’s why he supported my decision.”
When Mr Pawar announced his resignation at the launch of his memoir, many believed he wanted to thwart Ajit Pawar in his reported moves to organise a split in the party and defections to the BJP. That was believed to be the BJP’s Plan B in case its government in Maharashtra was threatened by a Supreme Court order on the disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Pawar’s talk about organisational changes has heightened the uncertainty over Ajit Pawar, who, in 2019, stunned his party by joining the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis in a dawn oath ceremony in Maharashtra in the middle of Mr Pawar’s efforts to stitch an alliance with Uddhav Thackeray and the Congress.
With his party bolstering his leadership, Pawar appeared ready to resume his other job, that of bringing together an opposition pulling in all directions ahead of the 2024 national election. “It is very important to unite all the political parties. From Rahul Gandhi to CPIM’s Sitaram Yechury, everyone called and asked me to continue,” Pawar said.
Pawar, who had founded the NCP in 1999 after breaking away from the Congress, had stunned his party by announcing his decision to resign as its president on Tuesday, saying he wanted to make way for a new leadership. The only leader who appeared to accept the decision and talk about the future was Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s political heir, whose recent moves have triggered speculation that he may split the party and join hands with the BJP.