Speculation rife about Pawar’s negotiations with Congress

Before the Lok Sabha elections, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP is believed to be in talks with Congress’ top leadership. Sources claim that negotiations are going on about the possibility of important leaders in the Sharad Pawarled NCP being given positions within the Congress if the deal comes through. Word is, Sharad Pawar is in talks with Rahul Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge regarding this. A leader close to an AICC general secretary said, “Sharad Pawar doesn’t want anything for himself. He wants a position for his daughter Supriya Sule in the All India Congress Committee (AICC). She doesn’t want any position in the state. So there is a possibility that he will merge his NCP with the grand old party after everything is considered. If that happens the Uddhavled Shiv Sena will continue to have the same seat share and all the remaining seats could go to the Congress apart from a few seats which could be given to Prakash Ambedkar.”

There has been a demand from the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (SSUBT), according to insiders, that their seat share should be the same they had during their alliance with the BJP. Out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats, the then Shiv Sena (now split into two parties) had contested 23 seats and BJP had fielded its candidates on 25 seats in the alliance. However, there are sceptics, with a political analyst saying, “Why would senior Pawar want to merge with Congress? There is still a lot of play left in him.” While others perceive this as Pawar being worried for the future of his daughter Supriya Sule, who is believed to be lacking the prowess to rebuild the cadre which got scattered after the breaking away of the Ajit Pawar faction. Hence the NCP veteran is in pursuit to secure his daughter’s future in an established party. Both parties are however tight-lipped about it. An AICC spokesperson from Maharashtra, Atul Londhe told The Sunday Guardian, “There is no discussion on any kind of merger.”

Another spokesperson from the Sharad Pawar-led NCP said that there was no truth in it. He added, “Where is this talk coming from? There is absolutely no truth behind it. Supriya Sule has also said the same. It is some rumour being spread by some vested interests.” But the so-called rumours are not stopping. A Congress leader in Maharashtra said, “There is not much left for Sharad Pawar. He is old and there might be a kind of thinking that he may not be able to rebuild the cadre back all by himself. Neither would his daughter be able to. So this could be a longterm fix for the people associated with his party rather than letting it fade away amongst the myriad parties in the state.”