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Journalism of Courage
There seems to be more than meets the eye in the NCP’s raising the pitch all of a sudden to demand its due share in key appointments. Party president Sharad Pawar, according to sources, is keen on bagging the Governor’s post for one of his close confidants, Janardan Wagmare, to counter Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Wagmare hails from Latur, Deshmukh’s home-town. Latur also happens to be the home turf of Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who lost his seat to a BJP candidate in the last Lok Sabha polls.
Former Vice-Chancellor of the Dr BR Ambedkar Marathwada University, Wagmare is chairman of the Latur civic body. He is also a vice-president of the NCP’s state unit.
The sources said Pawar, by pushing the case of Wagmare, is trying to build him as a foil to Deshmukh in his own turf. By doing so, he would only be paying the Congress back in the same coin after it abandoned Dalit leader Sushilkumar Shinde and propped up Deshmukh as the CM to counter his influence over the Maratha community. The move had come as a rude shock to the NCP chief, who had agreed to give up the party’s claim to the chief ministership primarily because Shinde enjoyed his confidence too. Latur falls in the Marathwada region, which witnessed a downslide in Congress fortunes in the recent Assembly polls. The Congress tally in the region, accounting for 46 seats, was seven, with the NCP score pegged at 12.
The sources said Pawar has taken up the matter with the PM too, but there is no firm response yet. The NCP has mooted the name of one of its general secretaries, Pitambarram Master, an old Pawar loyalist, too, for a gubernatorial assignment.
