Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 8: The veteran leader Sharad Pawar on Tuesday sought to set at rest all speculations about his Nationalist Congress Party joining hands with the BJP in the wake of confusion stemming from recent political developments in Maharashtra.
The Pawar Senior issued the clarification when he was called on by the members of the NCP’s Pune unit at his residence in Delhi. The speculation was rife after his nephew Ajit Pawar led a section of the Party to join the Shiv Sena (Shinde) – BJP government in Maharashtra and had claimed that his faction was persuading Sharad Pawar to bring the entire NCP over to join hands with the saffron party.
The Pune unit chief of the NCP, Prashant Jagtap, who led the 229-member delegation, said they were assured by Pawar that he would not side with the BJP and asked them to continue to work for the party without getting confused,
“The NCP chief has assured that he would be holding a rally in the last week of August in Pune to interact with the party workers and citizens on his political stand. He clarified to us that he will not join hands with the BJP,” Jagtap added.
Pawar Senior also reportedly told the visiting delegation that BJP was trying hard to ensure that the party and its symbol were handed over to the faction led by Ajit Pawar. However, he was believed to have assured them that he would not let the saffron party succeed.
Pawar’s behaviour has lately created confusion not just among NCP workers but also among the 26-party opposition INDIA alliance. At an event held in Pune on August 1, the NCP patriarch shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event was held to confer Modi with an award instituted in the honour of freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Despite INDIA parties objecting Pawar from sharing the stage with Modi – at a time the opposition parties are forging an alliance and taking on the BJP – Pawar went ahead to participate in the event, which his close aides had clarified that being a non-political affair his sharing the dais with the prime minister should not be viewed with scepticism.
Sharad Pawar had also granted audience to his nephew, Ajit Pawar, even after he walked away with nine NCP MLAs to join the Eknath Shinde-led government. The NCP MLAs from the Ajit Pawar faction held two consecutive meetings with Sharad Pawar, even after they joined the Shinde government.
Interestingly, the Ajit Pawar faction also claims that Sharad Pawar is their leader and they respect him. From hoardings to display boards, Ajit Pawar’s faction has been using Sharad Pawar’s photographs in every mass reach out despite the senior leader asking it to refrain from doing so.
What is more interesting, however, is that despite his reservation, senior Pawar has not taken any action against the Ajit Pawar-led faction over using his photographs. But the faction led by Sharad Pawar has removed all photographs of Ajit Pawar from the party offices amid a scramble by both camps to reconstitute the various committees after the split.
These developments have naturally created mistrust among both the NCP workers and the opposition alliance regarding Pawar Senior’s intentions. In Pune, the local unit has declared that it stands with Sharad Pawar while those with their eyes on the elections, including former corporators, have extended support to Ajit Pawar.
The Sharad Pawar-led faction is working in alliance with the Congress and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction is getting closer to local leaders of the BJP and the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Incidentally, Ajit Pawar, during his recent public appearance along with Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the `Shasan Aplya Daari’ (government at your doorstep) event in Purandar spoke for 30 minutes to justify his decision to join hands with the BJP-Shiv Sena. He said he has joined hands for the development of the state which was not possible sitting in the Opposition.
