Sharad Pawar resigns as NCP chief, later agrees to rethink

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, May 2

Famous for shrewd power games in national and state politics, veteran Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced his resignation as Nationalist Congress Party chief. However, hours later, his nephew Ajit Pawar said the decision would be given a rethink as cadres pleaded with the Maratha strongman not to renounce the top party post.

Maha move over succession plan?

• Sharad’s move effectively isolated nephew Ajit as NCP cadre rallied behind him
• Sharad will now find it easier to dictate the course of NCP’s future, and the party’s succession plan
• While the NCP chief wants his daughter Supriya Sule to lead, he has to equally contend with Ajit’s dabbling with the saffron party

“Sharad Pawarji has agreed to rethink his decision. He needs two-three days. But he will do it only if all protesting workers go home,” Ajit told a large gathering of the NCP cadre which refused to leave the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan in Mumbai, where the opposition stalwart announced his resignation.

The announcement, made by Sharad during the launch of his revised autobiography Lok Majhe Sangati (People Accompany Me), evoked extreme reactions. While state party chief Jayant Patil and leader Jitendra Awhad broke down, workers refused to accept Pawar’s move and stayed put at the venue in protest hours after Pawar had left. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said Sharad Pawar had not consulted anyone on the move.

Announcing the decision, former four-time Maharashtra CM Pawar, 82, said he was not retiring from active politics but wanted to withdraw from organisational role.

“After serving in public life for 63 years, starting May 1, 1960, it is time to step back. I have three years of the Rajya Sabha membership left. I will focus on national and Maharashtra issues with the condition that I will not accept any party post. I have decided to step down as NCP chief,” said Pawar, sending the gathering into a frenzy.

The former Defence and Agriculture Minister also announced a committee comprising party’s top leaders, including Praful Patel, Ajit Pawar and daughter Supriya Sule, to decide on the elections to fill the NCP chief’s post.

The committee met today amid signs that it would ask Sharad Pawar to reconsider, something the latter agreed to do by the evening.

The development triggered intense speculation about motives behind Pawar’s latest play, coming at a time when Ajit Pawar has been displaying chief ministerial ambitions with subtle moves at a split, powered by the support of some 40 NCP MLAs whom he met over the last few days.

Conscious of his nephew’s ambitions, Sharad recently said he would not let the NCP split. Ajit, too, had denied talk about his defecting to the BJP.

Sharad’s move today effectively isolated Ajit as NCP rank and file rallied behind the Maratha leader stamping his dominance on the party he co-founded with Tariq Anwar and late PA Sangma in 1999 after quitting the Congress over then party chief Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin issue.

Having resigned and gained the moral authority, Sharad Pawar would now find it easier to dictate the course of the NCP’s future, and the succession plan. While Sharad Pawar wants Supriya to lead, he has to equally contend with Ajit’s dabbling with the BJP.

The NCP supremo even said in his autobiography that he was clueless about Ajit’s 2019 move to ally with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis for government formation and the early morning swearing-in of the duo at the state Raj Bhavan.

The alliance, however, failed to prove its majority, paving the way for the emergence of Maha Vikas Aghadi, a coalition of the NCP and ideological foes —- the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Congress.

The MVA script writer was also Sharad Pawar. No wonder Fadnavis and Congress’ Prithivraj Chavan, commenting on Pawar’s moves, said the same thing today: “On Sharad Pawar ji, it is too early to say anything.”

As Pawar said he would reconsider, the opposition camp, eager to unite ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, also heaved a sigh of relief, as did MVA allies.