'We know these are mind games Ajit dada is playing, but he (Sharad Pawar) doesn't get swayed by such gestures.'
The mind games between Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar and his rebellious nephew Ajit Pawar continued for a second day on Monday, July 17, 2023, setting tongues wagging about a rapprochement between the mentor and his mentee.
NCP leaders and MLAs from the Sharad Pawar camp confidently say that the NCP chief has made it clear, in no uncertain terms to his nephew, that it is either he or the Bharatiya Janata Party the latter will have to choose between.
Ever since the junior Pawar was sworn in as the deputy chief minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government on July 2 after running afoul of his uncle, he has been engaging in back-channel efforts to mend ties with his uncle, according to an MLA from Ajit Pawar's camp.
"We are trying our best to convince him to support Ajit dada and give his blessings to our marriage with the BJP," says he about what happened during Monday's meeting which lasted 60 minutes at the Y B Chavan Centre in downtown Mumbai.
The nephew touched his uncle's feet on both Sunday and Monday and sought his blessings on both occasions, say NCP leaders who were present at the venue.
"We know these are just mind games Ajit dada is playing to win brownie points with Pawar saheb, but he (Sharad Pawar) has his own mind and doesn't get easily swayed by such gestures," says an NCP leader reacting to Ajit Pawar's touching his uncle's feet.
It was a part of the convince-Pawar-saheb-at-all-costs exercise that a group of 15 MLAs went to meet the NCP patriarch on Monday, just a day after the eight NCP MLAs who were sworn in as ministers along with Ajit Pawar on July 2, met him on Sunday, July 16.
"On both days we pleaded with him to bless us, guide us and join us," says this MLA who was standing behind Ajit Pawar when he was sworn in as deputy chief minister on July 2 following his parting ways with uncle Pawar.
"I doubt if any of the NCP MLAs who met Pawar saheb today or yesterday would have the gall to ask him to join them in their misadventure with the BJP; isn't it strange that they broke away from us and yet they can't survive even for a week with Pawar saheb's aashirwad?" retorts Mahesh Tapase, the NCP's chief spokesperson in the state countering the MLA's claim that the 15 MLAs asked the octogenarian leader to support Ait Pawar's joining the BJP.
"They (Ajit Pawar and the others) may have gone to meet Pawar saheb to justify why they joined hands with the BJP. They may have had their compulsions, but saheb believes in the politics of development and upliftment; for him the Constitution and ideology and thoughts of Shahu (Maharaj, the ruler of Kolhapur who played a significant role in the upliftment of backwards and Dalits in Maharashtra by offering them reservations in 1907), (Mahatma Jyotiba) Phule, (Dr Babasaheb) Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and that is the reason he did not respond (to overtures by Patel and Pawar)," says Tapase about how Sharad Pawar reacted during his two-day meeting with his nephew and NCP leaders and MLAs who went along with him to meet the senior Pawar.
"That amply proves that he (Sharad Pawar) is not interested (in supporting Pawar and Patel joining hands with the BJP)," Tapase adds.
Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel, once Sharad Pawar's close confidante and NCP Rajya Sabha MP and his New Delhi points-man, are heading to Delhi on July 18 to attend the meeting of National Democratic Alliance leaders convened by BJP President J P Nadda.
Interestingly, Pawar senior, who is known as an old hand adept at playing such mind games, continued to maintain his stoic silence over the two meetings his nephew and his supporters had with him, letting NCP Maharashtra President Jayant Patil to address press conferences and answer queries raised by these closed-door meetings.
Addressing media queries, Patil said that Ajit Pawar had called upon his uncle to discuss the way out of the situation that the NCP finds itself in.
'Those who have taken a separate route (the Ajit Pawar camp) came to meet Sharad Pawar today and requested him to suggest some way out of the current situation,' Patil told reporters later in the evening.
'I will continue to fight against our ideological opponents (the BJP); whoever wants to join us are welcome; whoever wants to join the BJP can do so; let the people of this country decide who their rulers should be,' is what Sharad Pawar told his nephew, says a senior NCP leader from Sharad Pawar's camp who was present at the Sunday meeting.
"Pawar saheb just doesn't want to have any truck with the BJP. Not even when (Atal Bihari) Vajpayeeji was the prime minister and not even now when Modiji is the PM," an NCP leader adds.
"The BJP today is destroying the fundamental structure of our Constitution and the federal character of the Indian Union is what Pawar saheb feels and he has pledged to fight against those destroying the idea of India," the NCP leader says.
According to an NCP MLA supporting Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar is desperate to repair his ruptured relations with his uncle because he fears he may not get as many NCP MLAs to join him to circumvent the anti-defection law.
"He (Ajit Pawar) claims he has support of 40 of the 53 NCP MLAs, but till today he has not been able to produce all of them before the governor. He knows he will not get the required numbers to evade the anti-defection law and his plan to become the chief minister will ultimately fail," says the NCP MLA belonging to the Sharad Pawar camp.
"Thus he has no choice but to convince Sharad Pawar to be on his side. Without him, Ajit dada is nobody in Maharashtra's politics," says this MLA.
"If he has it in him, then let him win the next (assembly) election from Baramati," says he.
Ajit Pawar has won election to the Maharashtra assembly uninterruptedly from Baramati -- a Sharad Pawar bastion -- since 1991.
Diliprao Shankarrao Bankar, the NCP MLA from Niphad, who switched loyalties to Ajit Pawar, says five more MLAs from Sharad Pawar's side are likely to cross the bridge in the next two days.
"They (Ajit and Sharad Pawar) are family; they have been together with each other for more than 35 years now. Ajit dada went to seek his blessings. He asked about the well-being of different talukas, the issues faced by them, about the rainfall in various districts; we have to continue to talk to each other. We can solve our issues only through talks."
Says the NCP MLA from Ajit Pawar's camp quoted earlier: "Only Praful bhai and Ajit dada went to meet Pawar saheb. Nobody knows what discussions happened during that meeting."
"We all want that we are still united and all of us should stick together," says Bankar about what was discussed during the meeting.
