With Finance, Ajit Pawar laughs all the way to the bank, the penny drops for Shinde Sena

With the countdown beginning for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, it seems a win-win for Ajit.

The BJP, which once led from the front in attacking Ajit, especially over corruption charges, tried to put a brave face on things. “Even though Ajit Pawar will be presenting the Budget, its contents will be decided mutually by him, (Deputy CM) Devendra Fadnavis and (CM) Eknath Shinde,” state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on Friday.

However, the charge by the Opposition that everyone who joins the BJP gets washed of charges against them is set to get louder.

In the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections, one of the main campaign points for the BJP was the alleged Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam under the outgoing Congress-NCP government. Fadnavis, then the Leader of Opposition, accused Ajit especially of diverting irrigation funds meant for Vidarbha to western Maharashtra, and demanded an investigation by the CBI.

When in power though, Fadnavis as CM was accused of going slow on the irrigation scam. It only started a probe into the issue after being sharply nudged by the High Court after about a year after it came to power.

Then, just before Fadnavis and Pawar joined hands to form a government in 2019 after the hung results – which lasted five days — affidavits were filed in court by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau exonerating Ajit in some of these cases.

When that government fell, the MVA was quickly rustled together, with Ajit the Deputy CM holding Finance.

Three years later, in 2022, before they split the Shiv Sena, Shinde camp leaders cited their displeasure with Ajit’s handling of government funds. They accused the NCP leader of allotting most of the money to his party, leaving the Sena high and dry.

The Shinde Sena then aligned with the BJP to topple the MVA government. Now Shinde was CM and Fadnavis his Deputy.

In the year since, while the Shinde Sena-BJP government and MVA parties fought each other, there was talk of a side show involving Fadnavis and Ajit. The NCP leader, also the LoP, was seen as being soft on the BJP while targeting the Shinde Sena.

This shadow-boxing finally culminated in Ajit breaking away from the NCP with a large number of MLAs, and immediately finding nine slots in the Shinde-led government.

For 12 days since, there was speculation about how Ajit would be compensated for helping the BJP deliver sweet revenge against Sharad Pawar, the NCP patriarch who had put together the MVA.

That Ajit got Finance seals his reputation as the Mr Teflon of Maharashtra’s politics, with accusations neither sticking to nor denting his political image. By securing lucrative departments for fellow NCP rebels, he has also consolidated his status as a leader, with the rival NCP faction sure to be watching the developments closely.

Trying to placate the Shinde Sena, which has been apprehensive of its utility to the BJP in the new set-up, the BJP has been talking of the portfolio distribution as realpolitik. However, it will strengthen the belief that Ajit was promised Finance as a deal to cross over to the BJP’s side, and that the negotiation drama over the past few days was more about cajoling the Shinde camp to not rock the political boat.

For Shinde Sena leaders forced to eat humble pie, the taste will be all the more bitter as there had been open calls from its ranks in the past few days against Ajit being given Finance. Bachchu Kadu, the Independent MLA who is supporting the Shinde Sena, said they feared that Ajit would again squeeze funds to Sena constituencies.

What everyone would be waiting to see now is how much of a restraint would the BJP presence in government be for Ajit.