Nearly four weeks after Ajit Pawar rebelled against the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and led his breakaway group to join the Eknath Shinde-BJP government in Maharashtra, confusion persists on what exactly is cooking between the two NCP factions. So far, neither side has managed to show the support of 36 MLAs, two-thirds of the party’s original strength, in the House to claim themselves to be the original NCP. And after the initial shock, no one seems to be in a hurry to do that either. Meanwhile, as they refrain from attacking or confronting each other, the two NCP factions are seen as keeping their doors open, as they engage in negotiations for resolving the impasse. The only signs of a division are the fact that the two NCP factions are split between the Treasury or Opposition benches, and while Ajit was recently at the NDA 38-party meeting, Sharad Pawar was present on the 26-party INDIA platform. The confusion in the ranks is clear from the poor attendance of NCP MLAs in the Monsoon Session of the Assembly, with about half the total of 53 not turning up to avoid having to choose sides in public. Instead, the House was witness to a viral photograph of the senior Sharad Pawar camp leader, Jayant Patil, and the Ajit group's Sunil Tatkare hugging each other and chatting warmly a few days ago. The hug was all the more notable for the fact that Ajit and Jayant Patil are seen as bitter rivals. Ajit, who holds the Finance portfolio, has done his best to signal to the vacillating NCP MLAs what his side represents. In the supplementary budgetary demands he recently presented in the House, he allocated development funds generously, from Rs 25 to Rs 40 crore, to all MLAs (on both sides of the Sena and NCP), leaving only the Congress out in the cold. For now, senior BJP leader and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has scotched rumours that Ajit is a step away from becoming CM, replacing Eknath Shinde. However, the rumours are only adding to the sense of confusion in NCP ranks. “Ajit has leaders, while Pawar has legacy and public sympathy with him. It is going to be a game of patience, where their MLAs and leaders await the outcome,” an NCP MLA affiliated to the Pawar group said. From the senior Pawar's side too, the signals are mixed. On July 2, when Ajit and his eight senior MLAs were sworn in as ministers, and he claimed the support of over 40 MLAs and approached the Election Commission for the party name and symbol, Sharad Pawar had announced a fight back. He had said that he would tour the state to rebuild the party and engage with the youth. He had even kicked off his campaign with a rally at Yeola in Nashik, the constituency of Chhagan Bhujbal, his former close aide who is among the senior-most rebel NCP MLAs, and convened the NCP working committee meeting in Delhi where several rebel leaders were “expelled”. But since then the NCP chief has been quiet, barely making any statement about various developments. The details of his statewide tour, which is said to be at a planning stage, are yet to be made public. Some leaders close to him, however, insist it was only deferred due to the current spell of heavy rains. The Ajit camp has also been careful not to go after Sharad Pawar barring the initial tirade against him and his “coterie”, when the rebels had removed Pawar Senior as party chief. Tongues, in fact, began wagging soon after when, days after advising the 83-year-old Pawar to retire, Ajit and his key team members went to meet the former twice to “seek his blessings” and to “request him to keep the NCP united”. Pawar has still not cleared the air about these meetings. And while he was said to have told the rebels not to use the photograph of their meetings, the Ajit camp has been freely using it. A Pune-based trust has announced it will confer the Lokmanya Tilak National Award on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 1 and that Pawar will be the chief guest at the event. Shinde, Fadnavis, and Ajit are also expected to be in attendance. An NCP leader said that the Ajit group had decided not to attack anyone publicly after “sensing the negative reactions to the attack on Sharad Pawar”. “And, in his meeting prior to the Monsoon Session, Ajit asked his ministers to remain calm while answering questions from Opposition MLAs,” the leader said. The BJP might not mind the wait for the chips to fall in the NCP either. The quick induction of Ajit as the Deputy Chief Minister and that of his senior MLAs as ministers in the Maharashtra government was done to give an extra push to the BJP's campaign in the state for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. But such a target is unlikely to be met if the BJP does not have by its side the main NCP and its symbol.
