Shivaji’s dynamic young legatees

Another factor is central to Maharashtra politics: its party system. For over a decade, an artificial bipolarity is accommodating the reality of multi-party politics in the state. While the bipolarity forced by political exigencies has taken its toll on the smaller ‘third force’ parties, the political space in the state has not become truly bipolar. Secondly, unlike some other states, politics in Maharashtra has not witnessed the rise of single-caste parties, nor has it seen the movement of one caste group en bloc from one party to another. This second feature has actually stalled the emergence of straightforward bipolar politics in the state. It is here that the importance of the NCP needs to be taken into account, instead of focusing on the media-driven personality cult surrounding Sharad Pawar.

During long years of dominance of the entrenched Maratha sugar bosses, the Maratha community was experiencing bottlenecks in opportunities available for young entrants to politics. On the other hand, the Congress party was proving inadequate for the established Maratha elites. This situation helped the Shiv Sena emerge as a rural party of the lay Marathas. On the other hand, the aspirations unleashed by post-Mandal politics of backward castes did not have any political platform in the state. The BJP and Sena provided this in the form of Hindutva politics. It seemed that politics in the state was on the threshold of a new post-Congress phase. Enter the NCP and subtle changes start taking place in this scenario, probably unintentionally, as far as the NCP was concerned. Like the Shiv Sena in the late Eighties and early Nineties, certain social forces turned to the NCP irrespective of its own design and self-image.

To appreciate this point, we have to look beyond Pawar’s politics, beyond the NCP leaders from the Maratha elites, such as Mohite-Patil or Padmasimha Patil and so on. Five features need to be noted. Firstly, the NCP has been able to catch votes from the semi-rural and semi-urban localities—a category that is becoming crucial in the state. In the election to the local bodies, in 2001-02, this feature emerged very prominently. Secondly, the NCP has projected fresh leadership: they might pass off as even young, by India’s gerontocratic standards! This is not only with reference to the likes of R R Patil (currently state president of the party), or Jayant Patil or Ajit Pawar. In district after district, the NCP has a set of fresh, new and relatively young middle-level activists and leaders. Thirdly, the party gets good support from sections that have had high school to college-level education, that is to say, moderate levels of education. Coupled with this, the NCP gets support from the very poor. This may appear as a contradiction as far as the ‘‘Maratha’’ (and by implication, pro-establishment) identity of the party. This combination of young, moderately educated, poor supporters gives the NCP a subaltern character (at which many party leaders may actually blush!). Fourth, the NCP is among the better organised parties. This despite the rebel candidates the party threw up. The party is better equipped as an electoral machine and network of resource mobilisation. This is evident from its ability to get a large proportion of its candidates elected and emerge as the single largest party in the state. Less visible is the fact that the NCP controls most of the district central cooperative banks in the state. It may not be organised as an ideological party, but as a power machine, it is well-oiled. And finally, it has a sophisticated and complexly structured political position: it is not averse to flaunting its ‘Maratha’ identity (as in the infamous James Laine episode early this year), but moderates this image with the rhetoric of agricultural development and well-being of the farmers. It is unabashedly pro-liberalisation and yet does not hesitate to speak the language of subsidies and interests of swadeshi farmers. And, there is an undercurrent of regional identity in its position that combines well with its ‘Maratha’ identity.

The NCP lacks the populist image of an NTR, it does not have the advantage of family as in the case of the Biju Janata Dal. In its emergence, it is similar to the Lok Shakti, but in its evolution and present role, it is more like the BJD. In the development of the state’s party system, these features of the NCP are bound to play a crucial role. At the present juncture, the NCP has stalled expansion of both the Shiv Sena and BJP. Unknowing to itself, it has thus provided the Congress with an opportunity to rebuild itself in the state.

The writer teaches at the Department of Politics, University of Pune