Ajit Pawar hits the yatra road, women voters front and centre

At the rally, Ajit says he realises the big responsibility he bears of carrying forward the NCP, and indicates he will lead the battle. (Express photo by Pavan Khengre)

Ten days in, the NCP chief is welcomed into Maval with much fanfare, with the old Mumbai-Pune highway decked with flex boards and cutouts featuring him along with NCP Maval MLA Sunil Shelke everywhere. Also present is pink, the colour the NCP under him has adopted.

Pink is as far as it gets from the Tricolour hues of the original NCP flag, and clearly closer to the woman vote bank Ajit is pursuing.

According to sources, DesignBoxed, the political consultancy that Ajit has hired for his makeover – as he contests the first state election as the supreme leader of the NCP – has advised him to go pink.

Today Ajit is donning a purple-ish jacket. Ahead of the venue for his rally directed at women, he ditches his car for a bullock cart, and the leader and his retinue arrive in a procession that includes NCP Maharashtra president Sunil Tatkare and the state chief of the party’s women wing, Ropali Chakankar.

In his speech, Ajit talks at length about the Mahayuti government’s “Mazhi Ladki Bahin (My Dear Sister)” scheme, which is modelled on the Madhya Pradesh government’s Ladli Behna Yojana to provide financial assistance to women. The Ladli Behna Yojana is believed to have been one of the driving forces behind the BJP’s return to power in Madhya Pradesh in last year’s Assembly elections, continuing its largely uninterrupted run in the state since 20-plus years.

As Maharashtra Finance Minister, Ajit announced the Mazhi Ladki Bahin scheme in the state Budget, the last before the Assembly elections. At the rally at Maval, the NCP chief says, to a loud applause from the audience: “The Ladki Bahin scheme is our commitment to women of the state and will continue if the Mahayuti comes back to power. I assure a total of Rs 90,000 for each eligible beneficiary under the scheme in the next five years if we are voted to power.”

Ajit’s speech shows shades of this realisation, as he refrains from attacking Sharad Pawar – aggression against the popular Maratha veteran is believed to have not helped his cause in the Lok Sabha polls.

Thanking the people for coming to the rally, Ajit goes on to highlight the Mahayuti government’s other women-centric initiatives such as free education till college for poor girls. “I was warned of a threat to my life in Malegaon in Nasik last week, but the prayers of my sisters are stronger and will protect me,” he says.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, Ajit’s NCP won just one of the four seats it contested, the least among the six main parties now in the fray in Maharashtra. In contrast, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) got eight. Ajit knows that it’s not just his rivals who noticed the results but also those within his antsy camp, who fear Sharad Pawar may yet have the last laugh.

Ajit’s speech shows shades of this realisation, as he refrains from attacking Sharad Pawar – aggression against the popular Maratha veteran is believed to have not helped his cause in the Lok Sabha polls. Even the tirades against his cousin and Baramati MP Supriya Sule are gone.

In fact, sending yet another frisson of speculation down Maharashtra politics, that has barely had a period of calm since the 2019 hung Assembly elections, Ajit said last week that he made a mistake fielding his wife Sunetra against Sule in Baramati in the Lok Sabha elections. In a fight that Ajit made a prestige issue, Sule had beaten Sunetra.

At the rally, Ajit says he realises the big responsibility he bears of carrying forward the NCP, and indicates he will lead the battle. “I will be campaigning across the state for the Assembly elections,” he says.

Ajit also drops a second hint that another family member of the Pawar clan might be seeking to take the political plunge. He says he may not contest from the Baramati Assembly seat, having fought eight times from there. With the name of his younger son Jay doing the rounds, the NCP chief says: “It is up to the party’s parliamentary board to decide the candidate after consultation with the local leadership.”

A lunch at a local party worker’s home follows after the rally, and then an interaction with residents of Lonavala town, which falls under the Maval Assembly seat. Addressing a sore issue for the locals, Ajit says: “I know the potential of Lonavala as a tourist destination and have allotted a large amount of funds for its development. I have warned officials and police to resolve the problems of citizens in Lonavala at the earliest or face action.”

Inviting the residents for a meeting at the Mantralaya to discuss their issues with various departments, Ajit leaves for the Chinchwad Assembly constituency.

A rally of a backward class community awaits him, and the NCP chief hops onto a pink autorickshaw, allotted by the state government to women drivers.