Sharad Pawar's Maha Nataka turns damp squib

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, May 5: Like stale Mumbai film scripts, the resignation drama of Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar too turned out to be a damp squib. Sharad Pawar predictably announced that he was withdrawing resignation, and that he would work to strengthen the party.

Ajit Pawar who was sought to be portrayed as a villain the Sharad Pawar script stayed away from the screening of the final act of the drama. Sharad Pawar told reporters that the MLAs who want to leave can leave the NCP.

Supporters of the Maratha strongman broke into dance to celebrate his decision to stay as president of the NCP. The ground was prepared for him, as a committee of the party asked him to take back the resignation letter.

Sharad Pawar, 82, is currently a Rajya Sabha MP, and his party in the Lok Sabha is represented by his daughter Supriya Sule. The Pawar family advocates in the NCP had wished that the national and state turfs be divided between Sule and Ajit Pawar to buy peace.

Ajit Pawar is well known to command stronghold on party MLAs in Maharashtra. His act of defiance to take oath as deputy chief minister in a BJP-led government after the Shiv Sena had shunned the saffron outfit had revealed his urgency to grow out of the shadow of Sharad Pawar.

Now, the Maharashtra-based political observers are of the opinion that the NCP is certainly headed for a vertical split. Ajit Pawar may walk out with a big chunk of the NCP MLAs to align with the BJP. Maharashtra Assembly elections will be held next year, and the legislators leaving the NCP for greener pastures may not be overly worried about their memberships in the Assembly.

But Ajit Pawar’s exit from the NCP may seal the fate of the Opposition in Maharashtra. The BJP could bank on the support of Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde and the NCP of Ajit Pawar to go for maximum Lok Sabha seat victory in 2024, as well as retaining power in India’s highly industrialised state, which accounts for almost one-eighth of the GST collections in the country.

Besides, Sharad Pawar’s marginalization and his humbling at the hands of nephew could make him persona non grata in the national politics, as the Opposition unity plank plays out. Sule may struggle to hold the NCP flock together once Ajit Pawar leaves the party.