2 NCPs, 2 foundation days: Pawar factions at crossroads
Mumbai: It was picture perfect, but unfortunately came out as a double exposure. At 10.10 am on 10 June, the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) held separate flag-hoisting ceremonies to mark 27 years of the party’s existence. The one in Mumbai—featuring the Sharad Pawar-led unit—sang praises about the work of their leader and vowed to persevere like him. The other in Delhi—the Sunetra Pawar-led unit—talked about Ajit Pawar’s contribution to the party and vowed to take his work forward.
Contrast and parallels exist together; one NCP is in power, the other is out of power, but at 27 years old, both face twin crises of identity and leadership, and an uncertain future.
With there being no leader to aggressively put forth the party’s demands and views after the death of Ajit Pawar, the Sunetra Pawar-led NCP is struggling to project its distinct identity within the ruling Mahayuti of Maharashtra, which also includes the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
The other NCP, out of power for four years now, is staring at uncertainty with no clarity on who will—or can—effectively take over the political legacy of 84-year-old founder Sharad Pawar.
Political commentator Abhay Deshpande told ThePrint, “Rohit Pawar (legislator and grand-nephew of Sharad Pawar) has established himself as a strong leader after Sharad Pawar. But both parties have lack of clarity with regards to leadership in the long term.”
“There is confusion in both parties, so they seem to be focusing on maintaining the status quo, organisational strength and political careers of their leaders,” he added.
Analysts say the two NCPs will start seeing a churn only by 2028. What will happen with the two NCPs depends a lot on the BJP’s strategy for the 2029 Lok Sabha and assembly polls, how the Sunetra and Parth Pawar leadership develops within the party, and if merger talks between the two NCPs, which gained ground after Ajit Pawar’s death, are rekindled for the political survival of the party, they say.
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‘From 2.5 districts to 2.5 families’
Throughout its 27 years, the NCP has often faced the criticism of being a party of just 2.5 districts, despite having national party status at one time. The party, whether it is the Sharad Pawar faction or the Ajit Pawar faction, was said to have its influence confined largely to Pune and Satara districts, and partly Ahilyanagar.
After the death of Ajit Pawar in January this year, his faction is sometimes mocked as being a party not of 2.5 districts, but 2.5 families. After Sunetra Pawar took over the reins to the party and took over her husband’s post of Deputy Chief Minister, there’s been an open leadership tussle within the party, with Ajit Pawar’s immediate family on one side and the party’s senior leaders on the other. The influence of Ajit Pawar’s son, Parth Pawar, has grown tremendously within the party, and there have often been instances of friction with senior party leaders Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal.
In the last ten days, Sunetra Pawar has attempted to placate both Tatkare and Patel by accommodating their candidates for the Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha elections, respectively. First, the party picked Tatkare’s son, Aniket Tatkare, as one of its two candidates for the Council polls from a sea of aspirants. The other candidate was Vikram Kakade, developer Sanjay Kakade’s son and a good friend of Parth Pawar.
Then, last week, the party decided to nominate Rajendra Jain, known to be close to the party’s working president Praful Patel, for the Rajya Sabha seat that Sunetra Pawar vacated. The bypoll will be held on 18 June.
“The party needs the support of the two leaders as of now. Praful Patel, especially, is on good terms with BJP leaders in Delhi, which will be helpful for the party,” an NCP leader said on condition of anonymity.
The move has, however, angered Bhujbal who had evinced interest in securing the seat for himself, and a ministerial berth for his nephew Sameer Bhujbal. It also upset several party functionaries and leaders across the state who were promised opportunities when Ajit Pawar was alive, but have to now wait for their turn.
At the foundation day function on Thursday, Sunetra Pawar tried to send a strong message that there should be no differences within the party. “My topmost priority will be the benefit of the party going forward. But if anyone unnecessarily interferes, we will think about it. The way Dada used to take bitter decisions for the interest of the party, going forward, though it will be difficult for me, but to ensure justice, I will do as he did,” she said, adding that everyone should ensure that she doesn’t have to take such decisions.
“Seniority will be respected, but at the same time we will give opportunities to the youth. We will strike a balance,” Sunetra added.
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In the BJP shadow
When Ajit Pawar led a rebellion against the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and joined the Mahayuti government with his faction, one of his conditions was getting the finance portfolio.
After his death, while Sunetra Pawar took over his position of Deputy Chief Minister, his guardian ministerships of the Pune and Beed districts, and departments such as minority affairs, excise, sports and youth welfare, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis retained the finance portfolio.
Legislators have confidentially spoken about how the lack of the finance portfolio is hampering the party’s growth. Earlier, Ajit Pawar used to be able to take requests of the party’s legislators, and release development funds swiftly where needed.
Last week, Tatkare and Patel met Fadnavis to emphasise the party’s demand for the finance portfolio. The BJP, however, has so far been non-committal.
Political commentator Hemant Desai said, “There is a strong likelihood that the BJP will not give the finance portfolio, but a different department to the NCP. The BJP’s dominance is increasing and it is getting clearer by the day. The party has weakened, almost to a B team of the BJP, because there is no one to aggressively put forth their party’s stand. The party lacks dynamic leadership to express a different identity.”
“Like the Congress ran for many years on the name of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, something similar seems to be happening here, where the party is only running on the sympathy for Ajit Pawar,” he added.
Sharad Pawar’s political legacy
Just like a large part of the Sunetra Pawar-led NCP’s celebrations were about recounting the work of Ajit Pawar, much of the foundation day celebrations of the Sharad Pawar-led party on Wednesday were about the work and ideology of their leader.
The party even played clippings of personalities such as former prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, industrialist Gautam Adani and so on talking about their admiration and respect for Sharad Pawar’s work. What remained unsaid was who the party should look up to once the octogenarian decides to call it a day.
“That leaves a lot of uncertainty. There have also been suggestions that smaller parties like the NCP should merge with the Congress,” Desai said.
The most recent such suggestion was made by Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), that parties such as the Trinamool Congress and NCP should merge with Congress.
Leaving aside the uncertainty about the future, party leaders said the only focus now should be on building organisational strength, raising the party’s voice on critical issues and closely monitoring the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision once it begins in the state.
“We should fill the Opposition space that is vacant today. Even if there is action against us, we should keep persevering. We have our ‘Dhurandar’ with us sitting on the stage,” the party’s Maharashtra unit chief Shashikant Shinde said referring to Sharad Pawar.
Soon after Ajit Pawar’s death, the political corridors of Maharashtra were abuzz with how the late leader had verbally agreed to a merger deal between the two parties. Threatened by the possibility of the leadership of the party slipping into the hands of the Sharad Pawar side of the family, leaders from the Ajit Pawar-led party rejected this outright. It was mainly leaders from the Sharad Pawar side, restless from being out of power and having seen their party considerably weakened in terms of numbers, fanning this spark.
While Sharad Pawar had earlier formally put a lid on these talks, Shinde reiterated this in his speech on Wednesday. “We have finished the topic of merger a long time ago. We have to focus on building the party now. The person who started the party is with us, so it is a big benefit. There will 100 per cent be a revolution,” he said.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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