Sharad Pawar or Ajit Pawar — who will have the last laugh?

Sharad Pawar’s remarks on the NCP merger are seen as a sign of retreat. Ajit Pawar knows that his uncle is not in a position to negotiate; thus, the nephew is in no hurry

It is no secret that senior political leader and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar is facing hard times. After the debacle of his NCP faction in the Maharashtra Assembly polls over six months ago, there is a question mark over the relevance of the entire Opposition in the premier state.

Last week, Pawar hinted at the possibility of a merger between his faction of the party and the faction headed by his nephew Ajit Pawar, who is also deputy chief minister. This was seen as the last straw for relevance in the changed situation where Ajit Pawar’s faction is part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance government in the state.

Unease is growing in Sharad Pawar’s faction as reportedly some MLAs have favoured a merger with Ajit Pawar’s party. It is also speculated that rumours about a merger are being floated by Pawar senior to stop desertions from his faction.

Sharad Pawar’s faction has just 10 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly, while it won eight of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2024. Ajit Pawar’s faction has just one Lok Sabha seat.

But the Assembly polls held in November were a major setback for the then-ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, and the Congress. Such is the pathetic state of the Opposition that no party could secure a score that could entitle it to the Leader of the Opposition status in the Assembly. In the previous Assembly, the undivided NCP had over 50 seats. This time, Ajit Pawar’s NCP has secured more than 40 seats in the Assembly.

The 84-year-old Sharad Pawar’s remarks on the merger are seen as a sign of retreat. To keep himself aloof of any move for a merger, Sharad Pawar had said that it would be decided by Supriya Sule, his daughter and working president of his faction, and Ajit Pawar.

However, the nephew poured cold water on merger talks when he flatly rejected that any moves are afoot to bring the two factions together. Ajit Pawar, perhaps knows that his uncle is not in a position to negotiate; thus, the nephew is in no hurry.

There is also a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) angle to it. Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil, who is a former state BJP chief, dismissed the speculation of the merger between the two NCP factions. It, in a way, meant that nothing is going to happen till the BJP, which is calling the shots in the ruling alliance, gives the go-ahead. 

Sule dismissed any move towards a merger, but the talk in political circles is that Sharad Pawar needs the merger amid growing apprehensions that the NCP would suffer erosion, sooner than later, with the BJP, which has mastered the art of breaking parties, waiting in the wings.

After the parting of ways and a good show by his party in the Assembly polls, Ajit Pawar is no more enamoured of Sharad Pawar, who had failed to hand over his legacy to him, but cultivated his daughter as his natural political successor.

While Sule has been focusing on national politics in New Delhi, for decades now, Ajit Pawar has been handling the affairs of even the undivided NCP in Maharashtra.

The rumours about a possible merger could have been a test balloon, and while it has been negated for now, it shows that in the days and weeks to come, one should expect more political drama from Maharashtra — one could even expect realignments in political equations within Maharashtra.

(Sunil Gatade is a senior journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.