‘BJP worked on Ajit after Sharad Pawar said no to Modi’s proposal’

Nobody will dispute NCP chief Sharad Pawar's special knack to read the tea leaves correctly and it appears he had the first inkling of his nephew Ajit Pawar jumping the ship when Shiv Sena, Congress and his party were close to seal a power deal, two days after a meeting he had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss farmers' issue.

Pawar's meeting with Modi on November 20 last year in the midst of hectic parleys for government formation in Maharashtra had set the tongues wagging as the latter had extended a hand of friendship to the Maratha strongman.

But Pawar said a firm 'no' to the proposal, which prompted the BJP to switch to Plan B or ‘Mission Ajit Pawar’, a new book '36 Days: A Political Chronicle of Ambition, Deception, Trust and Betrayal' by journalist Kamlesh Sutar.

Shiv Sena had come out of the NDA over the issue of rotational chief minister after the Sena-BJP coalition won a majority in Maharashtra Assembly elections. Pawar then took the leadership to install a non-BJP government in the state and hectic parleys were held between Sena, NCP and Congress.

On November 22, the three parties had met at Nehru Centre in Worli where they had decided on Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister. Pawar got curious as the way the things unravelled.

Ajit had left this meeting soon after the senior Pawar stormed out of the deliberations following a verbal duel with senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge over the issue of Speakership. Pawar had instructed his nephew and other party leaders to sit through the meeting before leaving the meeting.

At that time, Pawar has no clue what his nephew was up to in the next couple of hours. Coming out of the meeting mid-way, the book says, Ajit changed his car and drove straight to an “undisclosed location” for a discussion with senior BJP leader and then party president Amit Shah’s emissary Bhupendra Yadav. This culminated in Ajit attempting a coup on his uncle by joining hands with the BJP.

Pawar first ignored Kharge’s suggestion on giving Speaker post to Prithviraj Chavan, whom the NCP chief was in no good terms. Second time when he raised the issue, Kharge reminded Pawar that he had promised the post to Congress, the book says.

Pawar was "visibly offended” at Kharge’s tone and tenor and the former wrapped up his files and left saying, "what are you trying to suggest? Are you trying to suggest I am lying? I am not interested in talking any further if this is how the talks are going to be."

Ajit jumped into the argument but "hurriedly left" soon after, with other leaders thinking that he was angry because of the heated exchange. "However, that wasn't the case."

According to the book, Ajit had come out of the meeting and changed his car. BJP's Yadav was waiting for him and they met an "undisclosed location to finalise the swearing-in" of Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister and Ajit as Deputy Chief Minister.

"Ajit had already consented to join hands with the BJP a few days ago. Immediately after Pawar’s refusal to Narendra Modi, ‘Mission Ajit Pawar’ was expedited by the BJP. An NCP leader who was friends with a top state BJP leader had already tipped Fadnavis on how Ajit Pawar had once insisted on the possibility of thinking of BJP as an option in the initial days of the political logjam. The lines of communication with Ajit Pawar were opened from then and there," the book says.

"Bhupendra Yadav started working the deal with Ajit. During Ajit’s visit to Delhi, a meeting was also organized between him and Amit Shah to give Ajit the confidence that the BJP’s top leadership was closely involved in the developments. Ajit had since started to identify MLAs who would join him in the coup. It was not going to be an easy rebellion. After all, it was going to be against one of the most astute politicians," it says.

The senior Pawar was not the one to not keep a track of what was happening. Soon after he left the meeting, the book says, a "curious" Pawar made a call to Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut asking him what happened after he left and whereabouts of Ajit. Raut told him Ajit too had left immediately after him while NCP leader Jayant Patil told him that his nephew had gone to meet a lawyer.

Both Pawar and Raut called Ajit but they could not get a response while none of his staff or close aides knew where he was.

While Ajit gave a shocker to the senior Pawar by swearing in as Deputy Chief Minister with around a dozen NCP MLAs in attendance in Raj Bhavan. But Pawar was not the one who was ready to lose the battle and managed to bring back all the MLAs back. Eventually, Ajit too came back and a coalition government of Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP was formed.