It is final now that Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, will be his political heir. On the foundation day of the NCP on Saturday, the Pawar patriarch appointed Sule not only as the working president of the NCP but also put her in charge of Maharashtra, presently handled by his nephew Ajit Pawar. Close friend and senior leader Praful Patel too will be the working president along with Sule. This decision has effectively cut out Ajit Pawar from the top role and put him in a secondary role to Sule, who is notches below in political experience in comparison to her older cousin. A visibly upset Ajit Pawar left the NCP office soon after this announcement was made. A build up of rebellion has already started in the party, say sources.
Both, uncle and nephew have been on a collision course since November 2019, when Ajit Pawar in a pre-dawn coup had taken oath as deputy chief minister along with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis who was sworn in as the chief minister. This political event, which took place in the wee hours of the morning even as dawn was slowly breaking into the semi dark sky, had hit his uncle’s credibility hard. During the same time Sharad Pawar had been trying to stitch together a tripartite coalition with the Congress party, Shiv Sena and the NCP. The Ajit Pawar-Devendra Fadnavis coalition had collapsed within a couple of hours, but it left a trust deficit between the uncle and nephew.
Though, a disciplined mass-based leader with an understanding of the pulse of the people across Maharashtra, the trust deficit has hit his political ambitions. By putting Sule in charge of Maharashtra, where Ajit Pawar is the leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Sharad Pawar has completely marginalized his nephew.
Until this time, the demarcation of political territories between the daughter and nephew was watertight. While Ajit Pawar handled Maharashtra, Sule in her role as a Member of Parliament of the NCP handled national affairs of the party. Their roles were well defined. However, since the day Ajit Pawar meandered into the BJP arena, the lines of political control had to started blur. Sule started taking more interest in political pulse of Maharashtra and slowly established a strong foothold in the state.
However, senior NCP leaders say that Ajit Pawar will definitely strike back. Some months ago, he had remained incommunicado, cancelling all his appointments, meeting the NCP MLAs even as the same was denied by his uncle. The whole exercise then appeared to be a last spirited dash to challenge his uncle’s hold over the party. The anointment of Sule as the working president of the NCP, will push Ajit Pawar to take a decision on his future within the party, senior NCP leaders told Outlook. “It is a fight between the old guard who support Sharad Pawar saheb and the new guard who owe their loyalty to Ajit Pawar. Now Ajit Pawar will definitely rebel,” said a senior NCP leader. Another felt that when it is Ajit Pawar who is aggressively pushing the NCP in Maharashtra, Sule should be “kept to handle Delhi”.
The NCP may not split immediately but it certainly cannot be avoided. Political analysts believe that the political scenario in Maharashtra is set to change in the coming months before the elections next year. The nephew has the support of 40 of the 53 MLAs of the party – a sizeable number that can lead to the collapse of the NCP. Ajit Pawar’s aggressive leadership has a bigger fan following than any other leader of the NCP can command in Maharashtra. Some months ago, at an interaction organized with Ajit Pawar by Sakal (the Pawar family-owned Marathi newspaper), the leader had heaped praises on the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, referring to him as a charismatic leader who faced no competition.
According to sources, the BJP is attempting a similar coup as that done with the Shiv Sena in June 2022, then headed by Uddhav Thackeray, also a former chief minister. Then Eknath Shinde – now the chief minister of Maharashtra – aided by the BJP had split the Shiv Sena, when in an overnight coup he had stealthily left for Surat in the BJP-ruled Gujarat, with 40 of the 57 MLAs of the Shiv Sena.
Ajit Pawar too has the support of 40 MLAs of his party, leaving his uncle holding on to a mere 13. The loss of the national party status of the NCP too has made party men jittery about their political futures.
Maharashtra is not new to the politics of uncles and nephews and the political strife within these families. From Balasaheb Thackeray-Raj Thackeray, Gopinath Munde-Dhananjay Munde, Sunil Tatkare-Avdhoot Tatkare, Balasaheb Thorat-Satyajeet Tambe to Sharad Pawar-Ajit Pawar, all these powerful political families have seen the bitterest of feuds arising out of ambition. In all these cases, while the nephews have been the political shadows of their powerful uncles, when it came to anointing a political heir, the nephews tumbled out of favour.
In the case of the Pawar clan, their political rivalries within the family, though intense, have largely been beneath the surface. However, with Sule being given Maharashtra, the rivalry will now be out in the open, says another NCP leader. Sources say that Ajit Pawar’s anger stems from his frustration of being manipulated by his uncle. Like an ‘unguided missile’ he has kept his options with the BJP, particularly with Fadnavis, open.
Like his uncle’s ambition to be the Prime Minister, the junior Pawar harbours the ambition to be the chief minister. However, with Sule being covertly pitched as a contender for the “first woman CM” position if the NCP comes back to power, Ajit Pawar’s ambitions may just be eclipsed, say senior NCP sources. Presently, while the state NCP is controlled by senior leader Jayant Patil, the national affairs is handled by Sule, leaving the 63-year-old Ajit Pawar with little leeway to lead.
