‘With Ajit dada gone, now it should be easy for Sule to claim Sharad Pawar’s legacy’.
With the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) breaking into two factions in Maharashtra, the power struggle in the “party” between the two top leaders Ajit Pawar and Supriya Sule seems to have ended—as the junior Pawar joined hands with BJP—giving Sharad Pawar space to declare his daughter Sule as his political heir without any conflict.
The NCP was seen to have two power centres with the junior Pawar claiming more authority in the party. A party insider said, “Ajit Pawar was very powerful and a charismatic leader in the party. With him present, it would have been difficult for the senior Pawar to directly declare his daughter (Supriya Sule) as his political heir. Moreover, he was multiple times more powerful than Sule among the party legislators. He had had a big role in elevating the party. He had worked hard for it. So, it was by this factor that he could rally behind him more support within the party. But with Ajit dada gone, now, it should be easy for Sule to claim Sharad Pawar’s legacy.”
Moreover, Sharad Pawar last week named new working presidents for the party, naming his daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule, 53, and NCP’s current vice president Praful Patel, 66, who is a former Union Minister, virtually declaring his daughter as his successor.
Pawar, who is 86, made the announcement in New Delhi saying, “I am bestowing the responsibility of NCP’s working president to Praful Patel; along with that, have given responsibility of the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Goa. I am also giving the responsibility of Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, women, youth and Lok Sabha coordination to Supriya Sule as the working president.”
Experts say history is witness how party chiefs in several states have done everything to make space for their offspring in order to make them successors of their political capital. An example is when Balasaheb Thackeray bypassed his nephew Raj Thackeray and passed the baton of leadership of Shiv Sena on to his son Uddhav Thackeray.
There has been a buzz in the BJP camp that Sharad Pawar will also join hands with the BJP. Asked if Sharad Pawar would also join the Ajit Pawar camp as claimed by BJP leaders, a senior political analyst said, “There is no substantial reason that senior Pawar would join the Ajit camp. The question stands, why would he want to do it? What is the benefit for him to join the camp? He is a big leader who controls a dominant political party in Maharashtra and who has been in politics for more than five decades. He has been chief minister of Maharashtra. It won’t suit him to rally behind junior Pawar or to be a junior partner of anybody. These are just cooked narratives.” Another political observer in the state said, “Senior Pawar is not that active after the split. He was hyper active when Shiv Sena was split. It seems that he knew whatever was happening and whatever that was about to happen with his party.” However, on Wednesday, both NCP factions, one helmed by party founder Sharad Pawar and the other by his rebel nephew Ajit Pawar held parallel shows of strength, gathering their respective loyalists in two auditoriums in Mumbai.