Ajit Pawar is starkly different from his uncle Sharad Pawar. He is generally irreverent,works unabashedly to promote the interests of his party workers and doesnt mind being called a Maratha leader. Over the last 10 years,he has created a party worker base willing to stand by him,and him alone. His gamble of resigning with Sharad Pawars permission would not have happened had he not been aware of his strength. He was raring to project this not just to the Congress,but also to the formal NCP leadership.
Two things are apparent from what has transpired: in the short-term,the NCP leadership,or should one say Sharad Pawar,is not sure how to handle the consequences of Ajit Pawars resignation; and in the long-term,how to respond to his increasing clout over the partys 62 MLAs minus Chhagan Bhujbal and his son Pankaj.
The disconnect between the uncle and nephew is too much in your face to be ignored. While Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel said junior Pawar took the right decision by resigning,the NCP MLAs on Wednesday passed a one-line resolution urging him to reconsider it.
Sharad Pawar has been able to buy time because of the death of NCP leader Balasaheb Kupekar. He will meet NCP MLAs now on Friday. The resolution of MLAs,however,only pays lip-service to his authority,giving him the final say on resignations tendered by all other 19 NCP ministers. The growing clamour is to be seen on the same side as Ajit Pawar.
The uncle-nephew relationship,in fact,is uncannily similar to that of Balasaheb Thackerays with Raj Thackeray. It was also about succession,culminating with Raj launching his own party in 2006. Sharad Pawars biggest challenge now is to make the NCP succession clear.
The writer is Resident Editor,Mumbai,pv.iyer@expressindia.com
