The Maha Picture: As NCP ‘Clock’ Ticks, Who Will Stand the Test of Time – Sharad Pawar or Ajit?

Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is seeing an encore of what Maharashtra witnessed with the Shiv Sena last year.

After taking oath as a cabinet minister and deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar has also now staked claim to the party and its symbol.

On Monday, NCP National President Pawar started taking action against leaders of the Ajit faction. He issued orders, through a tweet, to remove MP Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare, who were appointed as Working Presidents and general secretary, respectively, from the party.

The allegation against these leaders is that despite being office-bearers, they didn’t stop the MLAs from defecting, rather supported them to join the Ajit faction. Pawar also removed some junior leaders who joined Ajit.

However, soon, Ajit announced the new appointments of his faction calling them “official". Patel appointed Sunil Tatkare as the State President and announced that Jayant Patil, who was holding that post till then, has been asked to vacate it. Patel also announced that Ajit has been made the leader of the Legislative Party. In the same press conference, Ajit announced that the way the Pawar faction has appointed the Whip and Leader of Opposition is not legal, and it is the call of the Assembly speaker. Hence, the Ajit Pawar faction has moved a disqualification plea against NCP leader Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad.

By taking action against each other, both the factions are now staking claim to the party and symbol. This is exactly what had happened last year with the Shiv Sena, when Eknath Shinde had revolted against Uddhav Thackeray.

THE NUMBER GAME

So far, Ajit Pawar has claimed that he has the support of the MLAs of the NCP, but has not showed a letter of their support to the media. In case of Shinde, whenever a Shiv Sena MLA used to join his camp, there were visuals of him welcoming the leader, which gave a real-time count of how many MLAs were supporting Shinde.

But here, Praful Patel and Ajit Pawar have asked the Sharad Pawar faction to show their strength. “Those who are calling themselves the real party should show how many MLAs are with them. We, being the NCP, have the support of a majority of the MLAs, otherwise we would not have joined the state government," said Patel.

According to the sources within the NCP, the way Surpiya Sule and Jayant Patil made appointments did not go down well with many leaders of the party. Hence, many approached Ajit Pawar against these two.

In recent times, all have seen the battle between Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray. The same legal battle is expected in the case of NCP vs NCP.

The first round of this battle will be at the Assembly speaker’s court, where both the factions have filed disqualification petitions against the other’s leaders.

JULY 5: THE ‘REAL’ PICTURE TO RELEASE

A seasoned politician like Sharad Pawar, who is considered to be a step ahead of his opponent, has decided to take this issue to the people of Maharashtra. Pawar will tour Maharashtra, especially constituencies of the nine MLAs, including Ajit Pawar’s Baramati, who took oath as cabinet ministers in the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government.

Pawar will ask people to decide which the real NCP is and who they support.

It will be a tough choice for NCP leaders as both Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar have good control.

On July 5, the picture will be clear as both the factions of the NCP have called a meeting of their leaders and supporters at two different locations in Mumbai.

The Sharad Pawar versus Ajit Pawar fight has added another chapter to Maharashtra’s political rivalries between uncle and nephew, following Balasaheb Thackeray versus Raj Thackeray, Gopinath Munde versus Dhananjay Munde and Balasaheb Thorat versus Satyajit Tambe.