Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar’s recent statement denying a split in the party has once again generated ripples in Maharashtra politics. The veteran leader on Friday (25 August) dubbed his nephew and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s revolt as a “different political stand”, which cannot be considered a split.
As per news agency PTI, the senior Pawar told reporters in his hometown Baramati in the Pune district, “How can anybody say that there is a split in NCP? There’s no question that Ajit Pawar is our party leader”.
“What does a split in a political party mean? A split occurs when a large group in a party is separated at the national level. But no such thing has happened here. Some people left the party, some took a different stand…In democracy it is their right to take a decision,” he added.
The NCP chief was responding to a question on his daughter and NCP working president Supriya Sule’s previous statement made on similar lines.
In Satara, he claimed he did not say that Ajit Pawar was “our leader” and that he was misquoted by the media, reported ANI.
Satara, Maharashtra | On Supriya Sule’s statement, “Ajit Pawar is our leader,” NCP chief Sharad Pawar says, “I am not saying that Ajit Pawar is our leader. Supriya Sule had said that. They are like siblings and there is no need to look for a political meaning behind this. I did… pic.twitter.com/2RM0MKO7kW
— ANI (@ANI) August 25, 2023
Ajit Pawar, along with eight other NCP MLAs, had joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government on 2 July, seen as a rebellion against his uncle.
What did Supriya Sule say? What’s going on? Why has Sharad Pawar’s latest statement spurred “confusion” in the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance? Let’s understand better.
Split or not?
A day back, Sule also said the “party has not split at all” and blamed the BJP for some NCP MLAs joining the ruling alliance, as per Indian Express.
“There is no split in the NCP. The chief of NCP is Sharad Pawar and the state unit chief is Jayant Patil. This is the reality and status of the party. NCP does not have any kind of alliance with BJP,” she told reporters on Thursday.
“Now, he (Ajit Pawar) has taken a stand that is against the party, and we have given a complaint to the Assembly speaker and are awaiting his response,” PTI quoted Sule as saying.
Last week, several workers of the Ajit Pawar-led group met with Sule during her visit to her parliamentary constituency Baramati, raising eyebrows, The Hindu reported. However, she had downplayed the incident.
According to Indian Express, when Eknath Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray and joined hands with the BJP, even then none of the Shiv Sena factions accepted that there was a split in the party.
Sharad Pawar’s camp has lately been denying that the NCP is split into two factions. In early August, the senior Pawar’s side told the Election Commission (EC) that Ajit Pawar cannot prove there is a split in the party.
“On 5 July, a letter was sent by them claiming that Ajit Pawar was declared as national president in a meeting held on 30 June. Before this, on 2 July, in a presser they have said that Sharad Pawar is the national president of NCP and their leader. All this will have to be considered by the ECI,” the party said in its statement to the poll body, reported Hindustan Times (HT).
The Sharad Pawar camp also urged the EC to reject the Ajit Pawar group’s demand for the party name and symbol, calling it “premature” and “malafide”.
Senior NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad also claimed that the party was united. “We have told the election commission that there is no split and NCP remains united. We are the real party and no one can stake a claim on it… The election commission should not have taken cognizance of their letter because no such split has ever happened and the party stands united.” he was quoted as saying by HT.
Claiming he had the backing of 40 NCP MLAs, Ajit Pawar had said on 2 July that he would move the EC to stake claim on the party name and symbol.
Even as Sharad Pawar’s camp denies a “dispute”, the Ajit Pawar-led group is preparing for possible legal troubles it might face in its quest for the party’s name and symbol.
As per a recent report in Times of India (TOI), Ajit Pawar’s faction has started collecting affidavits from party workers as a show of strength. A senior leader from the camp told the newspaper that they would submit the affidavits if there was a need to showcase the support of workers.
Notably, Ajit’s camp has continued to use Sharad Pawar’s picture on some of its billboards, which, as per The Wire, indicates the faction is not confident of winning the elections without the NCP patriarch’s support.
Uncle-nephew’s ‘secret’ meeting
While the senior Pawar has targeted some NCP MLAs who revolted with Ajit, he has refrained from directly attacking his nephew. During his initial days of joining the Shinde Sena-BJP government, Ajit was “staunch in his criticism of Sharad Pawar’s politics”, reported The Wire. However, later, he too softened his stance.
The duo have met multiple times since Ajit became the deputy chief minister, with three meeting in the second week of July itself.
Recently, the Pawars met at real estate developer Atul Choradiya’s home in Pune’s Koregaon Park area. When asked about the “secret” meeting, the senior Pawar, as per Indian Express, had said: “Ajit is my nephew. I am the eldest person in the Pawar family. Meeting a younger person in the family or calling him to meet is nothing wrong”.
He also reiterated that he will not ally with the BJP. “NCP’s political stand does not include joining hands with the BJP. None of us are with the BJP. Some of our colleagues have taken a different position and therefore a few friends of ours are trying to reconcile and check if that changed position can be reversed. For that, they are trying to communicate with us. But I want to clearly state in my capacity as the national president of the NCP that there is no question of the NCP allying with the BJP,” the NCP patriarch said, as per the English daily.
ALSO READ: Why Opposition thinks Sharad Pawar attending PM Narendra Modi’s felicitation event is bad optics
Should MVA be concerned?
The Congress and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) which form the MVA, along with Sharad Pawar-led NCP, have frequently been left puzzled.
On the senior Pawar’s ‘no split’ in NCP remarks, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Ambadas Danve said, “There is no doubt that such statements by Sharad Pawar are creating confusion in the minds of workers and people of the state. If he is saying that Ajit Pawar is their leader who is now in NCP, then of course there is confusion about his stand too”, reported Indian Express.
He, however, claimed that such statements would not impact the unity of the Opposition MVA alliance. “I personally feel that the issue (of split in NCP) has gone to the Election Commission and such statements are being made to safeguard the party’s name and poll symbol and the constitution,” Danve said.
Speaking to News18, Maharashtra Congress leader Sachin Sawant said: “Regarding this confusing scenario, our leadership will speak with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.”
Responding to the NPC chief’s latest remarks, BJP Maharashtra president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said he believes Sharad Pawar will “have a change of heart” seeing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s work in the coming months, adding that the senior leader will “be with” them (the ruling alliance) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, reported News18.
This “confusion” about the NCP is not new for the MVA.
Following the Pawars meeting in Pune on 12 August, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole had held talks with Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai.
“We discussed the current political situation in the state. The misinformation spread about Sharad Pawar was also discussed. We feel that there should not be any confusion among people and MVA workers about the meeting between Sharad and Ajit Pawar. We believe that the people look at the MVA as a united front and no confusion should be created about us. We both (Congress and Sena) are ensuring that,” Patole was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
As per Deccan Herald, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan had said about the Pawars’ Pune huddle, “Allied partners must get official information about such meetings as it cannot be limited to family issues”.
The latest developments come days before the Opposition INDIA alliance, which will take on Narendra Modi-led NDA in next year’s general elections, is slated to meet in Mumbai on 31 August and 1 September. It remains to be seen if the Pawars will maintain the status quo or if another major development is awaiting to create turmoil in Maharashtra politics.
With inputs from agencies
August 25, 2023 at 05:34PM
No comments:
Post a Comment