Sharad Pawar’s historic rain-soaked speech marks one year

As he marked the first anniversary of his rain-soaked speech in Satara, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who would turn 80 in just a couple of months, on Sunday hit the ground as he preferred to meet people devastated by the last week's megafloods.

Pawar, the chief architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, flew in a helicopter from his hometown of Baramati in Pune district to the flood-affected areas.

The 79-year-old Pawar, who knows the pulse, preferred to be with the affected people and discussed the damage and assured relief.

The NCP, on its Twitter handle, put out a video of the October 18 2019 speech in the run-up to the Vidhan Sabha polls in Maharashtra.

“Varun Raja (rain god in the Hindu mythology) has blessed the NCP. With his blessings, Satara district will now do magic in the upcoming polls,” he had said in Satara exactly a year ago – and within months changed the political situation in Maharashtra – as the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance broke and Uddhav Thackeray removed Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister.

Through midway to the new government, he suffered a setback when his nephew Ajit Pawar broke ranks and joined Fadnavis to establish a government that crumbled within 48 hours.

The speech was made at a campaign rally for NCP's Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil in the Satara Lok Sabha bypolls, in which he had defeated Udayanraje Bhosale, the descendent of legendary Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who quit NCP to join BJP.

Pawar, a four-time Maharashtra Chief Minister, and two-time Union Agriculture Minister, once again showed and led by example – when he launched a tour of Marathwada and Western Maharashtra.

Even Pawar’s daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule tweeted about the speech. “Against all odds, if one holds the ground and fights on is one whose name is Sharad Pawar,” she said.

“This unprecedented moment will always remain an inspirational memory in the History of Maharashtra,” said NCP general secretary and former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, a close aide of Pawar.