New Delhi: Ever since Ajit Pawar took oath, the NCP adopted two-pronged strategy. Sharad Pawar made it very clear that he does not support Ajit's moves and also announced that he will be expelled from his post. But though they distanced themselves from Ajit's act, NCP and Sharad Pawar did not disown him completely. They kept open the channels of communications with Ajit. In fact, most senior leaders like Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal etc went openly and held at least six meetings with Ajit in the last two days. In fact, on Monday, Chhagan Bhujbal and others had a closed-door talk of about four hours with Ajit Dada. Apart from this Supriya Sule and other Pawar family members also kept on making emotional appeals to Ajit through social media.
So even in the face of Ajit's most drastic step, Sharad Pawar did not allow any hatred towards him. In fact, the hoardings which had come up in Baramati to support Sharad Pawar were immediately asked to be removed.
This helped Pawar on two fronts. Pawar knows that within the NCP there are lot of MLAs, leaders or activists who like Ajit. Had the party decided to demonize Ajit, it would have alienated his supporters within the party. Sharad Pawar avoided this very skillfully. Secondly, Sharad Pawar has also ensured that if Ajit Pawar wishes to come back there is always comeback passage open for him.
And all said and done, though Sharad Pawar is not showing on the face, it was an emotional issue for him as well. Ajit has always been like a son to him. Pawar knows Ajit's strengths and weaknesses. And on number of occasions he had made it clear that Ajit will lead the party in Maharashtra and Supriya, his daughter will stay in Delhi. Supriya is not a chief minister material and is better suited for Delhi politics, which Pawar knows fully. So Ajit's crossing over to the BJP with which Pawar is fighting a battle of his life for past one year was doubtlessly a big jolt. But still, Sharad Pawar ensured as they say "snake gets killed but at the same time stick also does not get broken.”
Pawar's Command over the party
Sharad Pawar is now 79. His party had got wiped out in the Lok Sabha elections. And many observers had written him off. He bounced back in the assembly elections with NCP getting 54 seats. In the elections, he also ensured that many of the leaders who had crossed over to BJP from NCP get defeated. And today, he showed that he has complete command over the party. Excepting Anna Bansod from Pune, not a single MLA in NCP did go with Ajit. Some of the MLAs who were on the fence, were also either persuaded, cajoled or secretly threatened in various ways.
Sharad Pawar is known for his tremendous memory. He knows not just MLAs but most of his grass-root activists by their names. He knows their family and marital ties, and also ins and outs about their cooperative institutes or also about their private affairs. Pawar has helped most of them build their institutions ( like sugar factories etc). Because of this Pawar commands both respects as well as fear even if he is not in power today.
Pawar knows himself whom to tap to talk to the concerned MLA on the fence. And Pawar's strength has come in handy to avert any rebellion in the party.
In the BJP camp
Till yesterday, BJP leaders were celebrating victory even before actually attaining it. They were almost certain that Ajit Pawar must have great sway over his party and at least 25 MLAs will break away along with him. When that did not seem to be happening they started banking on the technical things like Ajit Pawar being an erstwhile leader of NCP legislative party he is solely entitled to issue whip. In the meanwhile, NCP sacked Ajit from the post and elected a new leader in the form of Jayant Patil and informed accordingly to the Assembly Secretariat. But the BJP was not willing to listen to anything.
In the night between Friday and Saturday when the president's rule was revoked, not many BJP leaders were knowing about it. Even most of the ex-ministers and MPs were taken aback when they saw Devendra taking oath on Saturday. So clearly it was a secretive operation planned and executed at the highest level of Modi and Shah.
How far Devendra Fadnavis had any say in the whole episode is anybody's guess at the moment. Left on his own, it can safely be said that Devendra would not have gone along with this plan. Because he and his colleagues have on record said number of times that Ajit is a most corrupt person and his place is in jail. There is one clip going on where Devendra is seen saying that he will never (never and never) go with the NCP. He will remain out of power but will not have to tie up with NCP he had said in the campaign.
