It’s that classic Pawar failure again!

MUMBAI, OCT 7: Those who have seen Sharad Pawar's politics from close quarters will testify this: He promises a lot but delivers little. ...

MUMBAI, OCT 7: Those who have seen Sharad Pawar’s politics from close quarters will testify this: He promises a lot but delivers little. This year is no different. He sought a make-or-mar mandate for his fledgling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) both in the Maharashtra Assembly and Lok Sabha — he did not quite make it in either.

In the process, Pawar has achieved what he did on so many occasions earlier but is hardly remorseful about. He successfully stymied the Congress leaving it dented enough that it could not carry power on its own and, in the process, allowed the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition to reap dividends. At the heart of it, it’s the classic divide-and-rule policy — except that Pawar doesn’t get to rule. In the 1995 assembly election and 1996 general election, Pawar worked his policy from within the party. This year, he was on the outside.

Free of an antagonistic leader like Sonia Gandhi and outside the Congress fold, he believed, lay his dream future — to be kingmaker if not the king. The bestof strategies often misfire. His did too. As it turns out, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance can coast along comfortably in New Delhi without knocking at his door for support.

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In his home-state, he is still second fiddle to the Congress and cannot hope to wean away Congressmen to form a NCP-led government. If at all, it will be the other way around. NCP legislators may prop up a Congress government either by supporting it en bloc or some joining the parent party. Yet, NCP leaders do not believe Pawar made an error of judgement in queering his pitch out of the Congress. “He raised an issue and faced the consequences. There is no regret,” says his lieutenant in Mumbai Chhagan Bhujbal.

Pawar’s thoughts exactly but true till the results started trickling in on Wednesday afternoon. Since then, his possibilities at power have narrowed down to sharing it with the Congress on its terms since the latter has emerged with a higher tally in both the state assembly and Lok Sabha. Those who accepted theoft-repeated phrase that he is, indeed, the Maratha strongman will be forced to rethink about his famed prowess.

The honour’ bestowed can hardly fits his not-too-impressive election track record. At the end of all the hype and hoopla remains the stark fact that Pawar has never led a party or a coalition to victory in the State nor has he gifted his erstwhile party with a good show in the Lok Sabha since his bold experiment in 1978. In fact, figures show that he could not capitalise on an anti-Congress sentiment from outside but caused a gradual downslide in the number of seats whenever he led the party. That’s why 1998 was a Godsend when the Congress plus allies bagged 37 of the 48 LS seats resulting in a tussle between him and Sonia’s men to claim credit for the performance.

Few question his administrative abilities but many are beginning to wonder if the “strongman” status was exaggerated. Pawar has power, no doubt, but in specific regions of the State. Whether in the Congress umbrella or outside it,he has managed to get a vote share of about 23-25 per cent. This he appears to have retained now. But it’s not enough to give him a command over the State. “Of course, Pawar wields considerable influence but in a sense it is limited,” says Prataprao Bhosale, Pradesh Congress Committee president and once a Pawar loyalist.

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Election ’99 has shown that Pawar has but a limited appeal. Of course, he had less than six months to steer the NCP to a respectable slot. But the results only give grist to the slander started by his bete noire and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray: That Pawar is a leader with his clout beginning and ending in Baramati. This time, more than ever before, Pawar has to begin proving himself all over again.