Amid Sharad Pawar remark on NCP merger, BJP braces for balancing act with Sunetra’s entry
The BJP has chosen to adopt a wait-and-watch stance as the Nationalist Congress Party weighs its next steps following Ajit Pawar’s demise.
Wife of late Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, Sunetra Pawar (left) and NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar (right).(PTI/Express Photo) With Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) patriarch Sharad Pawar stating that the merger of the two party factions is likely to “be discontinued’, the BJP has chosen to adopt a wait-and-watch stance on the family’s final decision, even as Sunetra Pawar, wife of the late NCP leader Ajit Pawar, is set to be sworn-in as the new deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.
According to BJP insiders, while all eyes now are on what Sunetra Pawar chooses to prioritise –the party’s political turf back home or looking for representation at the Centre through the Rajya Sabha, or both—recent developments have necessitated that the BJP go for a significant balancing act in the state, in the face of a possible more assertive Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde.
“It is a matter that pertains to a separate political party, and what happens next is solely under their ambit. But, that being said, it has certainly brought both Maharashtra and national politics into play in the contest of the BJP’s alliance dharma,” a senior BJP leader said.
“While Sunetra ji has been accommodated by the NDA government wholeheartedly in Maharashtra, in the same position as her late husband, the current mayoral polls in the state have brought the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde into focus,” the leader added.
According to BJP insiders, with the late Maharashtra deputy chief minister’s wife required to vacate her Rajya Sabha seat—one of three held by the party—there was a lot of curiosity over whom the party would send to replace her in the Upper House.
“A view within the BJP is that the NCP might utilise its Rajya Sabha seat to affect a generational shift from within the Pawar household, which might bring a request for accommodation for the new Rajya Sabha MP in the council of ministers at the Centre, alongside an existing berth, that of Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav (Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare),” a source said referring to a likely rejig of the Union Cabinet.
“But this will depend on whatever decision the NCP takes; as far as the BJP is concerned, alliance dharma is supreme and will be followed like always,” the source added.
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