Why Modi acknowledged Sharad Pawar was PM material

Recently, during an interaction with BJP leaders representing Maharashtra and Rajasthan in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to how Sharad Pawar’s aspirations were killed by the Congress. Speaking about Congress’s dynasty-centred politics, PM Modi said the party was blinded by politics centred around the Gandhi family.

“To pursue selfish interests and promote dynasty politics, they killed the aspirations of many big leaders. As a result, competent leaders like Pranab Mukherjee and Sharad Pawar could never become the PM,” Modi reportedly said.

PM Modi’s candid acknowledgement of Pawar being PM material came as a surprise for the Maharashtra BJP unit. “What Modi said was an honest expression about Pawar. His remark also highlighted how dynasty politics in Congress ruined the political careers and aspirations of able leaders,” a BJP insider said.

“By stating that Pawar was PM material, Modi wanted to project how the Maratha leader was wronged by Congress. It also legitimised BJP’s strategy to wean away the Ajit Pawar-led faction to his fold,” the insider added.

What BJP leaders cannot explain, however, is that if Modi has such reverence for Pawar, why did the BJP divide the NCP?

Today, at 83 years of age, Pawar is a Rajya Sabha member heading a faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The split in the party came about after Ajit Pawar, along with 36-plus MLAs, joined the BJP-led government in Maharashtra on July 2. While Ajit Pawar became the deputy chief minister, nine leaders from his faction bagged cabinet minister posts. The Sharad Pawar-led faction is left with around 17 MLAs.

However, despite the pressure from a majority of his MLAs and MPs to join hands with the BJP, Sharad Pawar has dug his heels in, at least in public. “I will not join BJP,” he reiterated on Tuesday, leaving it up to his MLAs and MPs to take a stand on whether they want to join the BJP or not.

Unlike Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar probably reckons his soft peddling with the Ajit Pawar faction would help keep the NCP united in the future, after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP, meanwhile, has also been lavishing praise on Ajit Pawar. “Ajit Pawar has come to the right place. He should have come much earlier,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah said last week during his Pune visit.

Even as the Shiv Sena (UBT) has slammed the BJP for its “double standards” on the NCP, behind Modi and Shah’s praise of the Pawars possibly lies a strategy of gaining goodwill among the NCP and its followers. The larger strategy, of course, could be to thwart Opposition unity ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Maharashtra, with 48 Lok Sabha seats, is critical for the BJP. After Uttar Pradesh and its 80 seats, Maharashtra has the second-highest Lok Sabha seats and is likely to play a significant role in getting PM Modi elected for the third time. The Centre has already given the state BJP unit the daunting task of winning 48 out of 48 seats.

“We cannot antagonise Sharad Pawar as he still has the ability to whip sympathy and play spoiler,” a political manager in the BJP admits.

BJP leaders in the state still recall how Sharad Pawar’s address in Satara during an election rally changed the public mood in 2019. The images of Sharad Pawar delivering the speech, soaked in rain, not only helped the NCP win the Satara Lok Sabha seat but also adversely affected the BJP in the state Assembly polls six months later.

“Pawar Saheb has the indomitable spirit to take up challenges and fight,” an NCP leader who has pledged loyalty to Sharad Pawar said, pointing out that he has already begun touring the state.

The BJP, understandably, can ill-afford to antagonise him.