Maharashtra politics has been a bundle of surprises in the past five years. But despite this high bar, Dilip Walse-Patil joining the Ajit Pawar faction, after the split within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) did manage to generate ripples.Once the personal secretary to Sharad Pawar, Walse-Patil first got elected as an MLA from Ambegaon in 1990 on a Congress ticket. A Sharad Pawar loyalist, he has been with the NCP ever since its inception in 1999. After enjoying Pawar’s patronage over such a long span of time, observers were taken aback when Walse-Patil attacked the NCP supremo. Though he shortly retracted his statements On Monday, August 21, speaking to party members in his constituency, Walse-Patil stated that Sharad Pawar is “a tall leader but he could not single-handedly bring his party to power in Maharashtra.” In July, Ajit Pawar had also questioned Sharad Pawar’s political ambiguity by pointing to his meetings with the BJP since 2014. Later, Walse-Patil ‘clarified’ his remarks, emphasising his continued respect for Sharad Pawar as a leader and a veteran. Is there space open for Ajit Pawar to make a return?Sharad Pawar on Sunday, August 20, said, “Some of our members left us.”“They (the Ajit Pawar faction) say they went for development but this is not at all true. The Centre had launched an ED (Enforcement Directorate) inquiry against them and they left the NCP,” Sharad Pawar said. This is not the first time that he has made such allegations.In the same speech, he mentioned how certain leaders like NCP’s Anil Deshmukh and “Saamna editor” – Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut – were ready to face a similar inquiry. Pawar was speaking in Pune during a gathering of the members of the social media team of NCP.Before this meeting, at a rally in Beed, Pawar spoke against the state’s agriculture minister and Ajit Pawar loyalist Dhananjay Munde.Earlier last month, Pawar was critical of Chagan Bhujbal – who has also jumped ship – during a rally near Nashik. Both Munde and Bhujbal are prominent leaders who hail from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), who were nurtured by Sharad Pawar. Despite his direct attacks on these two, Pawar has steered clear of directly naming Ajit in his verbal attacks. Initially, after joining the Eknath Shinde government, Ajit was staunch in his criticism of Sharad Pawar’s politics, but later on, Ajit too appeared to start to refrain from speaking directly against the NCP patriarch. On August 12, a “secret meeting” between Ajit and Sharad Pawar took place at businessman Atul Chordiya’s house, it was reported. It is speculated that Ajit is trying to convince his uncle to join the BJP. It had also been speculated in July, that BJP had offered Ajit even the chief ministerial berth on the condition that he would be convincing Sharad Pawar to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).Former minister Jayant Patil, who decided to stay with Sharad Pawar after the party split, on Monday said that there is no problem between him and Ajit. Without naming Ajit, he claimed, “It is only because of Saaheb (Sharad Pawar) that many of them (of the Ajit Pawar faction) became ministers.” Supriya Sule, Sharad Pawar’s daughter and MP, while talking to the media on Tuesday said that despite the family’s relations with Ajit Pawar, they “will oppose him based on ideological grounds”. It is noteworthy that last year, when Eknath Shinde broke away from the Shiv Sena, he faced concentrated attacks by Uddhav Thackeray and other opposition groups on having got Rs 50 crore each from the BJP. But for the NCP split, no allegations of this sort seem to have surfaced.Jayant Patil’s statement on not having a problem with Ajit, Sule calling Ajit a “family member”, Walse-Patil’s back-tracking and Sharad Pawar never once naming his nephew directly all put together have intensified speculation if all this is raise about the original NCP, keeping the door ajar, for Ajit Pawar to return.Anguish among the Shinde faction and BJP When breakaway Shiv Sena MLA, Eknath Shinde formed the government in Maharashtra with the help of the BJP, he was the only person to take oath as minister. In contrast, when Ajit Pawar joined the government, nine other leaders from NCP took oath as ministers of Maharashtra state. While the MLAs with Shinde yearned for a ministerial berth, Ajit Pawar got the most important portfolios. Bharat Gogawale, a prominent leader of the Eknath Shinde faction, has meanwhile made a significant revelation. Gogawale stated to his party workers in Raigad that three members from Shiv Sena have become ministers in the Maharashtra government by “blackmailing CM Shinde.” However, when questioned about the identities of those who became ministers through blackmail in the government, Gogawale maintained silence.Apart from the Shinde faction MLAs, there are reports of resentment amongst BJP workers too since Ajit Pawar’s entry into their government. On the other hand, some within the BJP do not view Eknath Shinde as someone who can garner votes. A group of individuals who are convinced that appointing Eknath Shinde as the chief minister has been detrimental to the BJP’s interests in Maharashtra has already held discussions with Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, as mentioned by Sanjay Raut in a Saamana article.NCP is largely seen as a party of dominant Maratha castes. By bringing Ajit Pawar into their fold, in an attempt to woo the Marathas, there is a fear within a section of the BJP, that the party may end up losing its grip on the OBC votes in the state.With the Ajit Pawar group still using Sharad Pawar’s picture on some of its billboards, it is clear that the faction is not confident of winning elections without the support of Sharad Pawar. Given that Maharashtra, after UP is the state with the largest number of MPs, and with the general elections in Spring next year, it is believed that Ajit Pawar’s utility for the BJP, hinges around his ability to get his uncle into the BJP fold, or at least force Pawar senior to stay ‘neutral’, and not campaign for INDIA or MVA.Sharad Pawar, in his speeches, has declared that he would not join the BJP at any cost.
