Ajit says he could be CM “right now”, leaves NCP and MVA guessing

Mumbai: Days after his clarification that he would not leave the NCP till his last breath, Ajit Pawar on Friday declared in an interview to the Sakal group in Pune that he could become chief minister not in 2024 but right now. His remarks are being seen as a not-so-subtle signal to his uncle Sharad Pawar, the NCP supremo, who has not accepted his suggestion of joining hands with the BJP.

“Ajit could go with the BJP if he gets the chief ministership,” said a senior NCP leader. “His close aides are saying that the party will offer him the post if the Supreme Court disqualifies Eknath Shinde and his MLAs in its judgment on the Shiv Sena split which is expected in the next few days. Sharad Pawar is so far not willing to forge an alliance with the BJP, and Ajit’s remarks are a message to him that he is prepared to take an extreme step.”

In further indications of his desire to jump ship, Ajit has been contradicting his party as well as his Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies on various issues and praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut wrote in his ‘Saamna’ column that Sharad Pawar had told him and Uddhav Thackeray that some of his party colleagues were under pressure due to the central government’s investigating agencies but he had told them to take their own decision. This further fuelled speculations that Ajit could split the party to join hands with the BJP.

Ajit, in the interview to Sakal, also pointed out that the NCP leadership did not stake a claim on the chief minister’s post in 2004. “Ajit is convinced that he had a chance to become chief minister in 2004 when the NCP won two seats more than its ally, the Congress,” said a top NCP leader. “As per the agreement between the two parties, the chief ministership was to have gone to the party with more seats. However, Pawar conceded it to the Congress in exchange for more ministerial berths for the NCP. After that, Ajit never got a chance to be CM.”

The NCP leader added that Ajit was recently looking forward to being the face of the recently launched MVA rally campaign across the state but Uddhav Thackeray emerged as the common choice, and by that logic, the chief ministerial candidate of the MVA. “Ajit sees this as a ploy to again deny him the chief ministership if the MVA wins next year,” he said. “He is also convinced that Pawar is promoting his daughter, Supriya Sule, and would prefer her for the chief ministerial post. The increasing participation of Sule in the NCP’s decision-making process has not gone down well with him.”

Ajit’s recent remarks are a clear indication that he has not given up on his ambition of becoming chief minister of Maharashtra—a dream he has nursed for almost two decades. “The inference is clear. He is running out of patience and making it clear that he is not willing to compromise,” said a senior NCP legislator.

None of the NCP leaders reacted to Ajit’s remarks in the interview. “It has been decided that only Pawar Saheb (Sharad Pawar) and Supriya Sule will speak on the Ajit issue,” said the NCP leader. “All the other senior leaders are keeping quiet. However, a few of them, like Praful Patel and MP Sunil Tatkare, support Ajit.”

Tatkare, NCP MP from Raigad, on Friday said that he would like to see Ajit as chief minister. He is the first party MP to come out in support of Ajit. Earlier, three MLAs had said they would support Ajit if he decided to go with the BJP.

While NCP leaders remained silent, the party’s partners in the MVA reacted. While the Shiv Sena (UBT) was cautious in its reaction, state Congress chief Nana Patole minced no words. Strongly reacting to Ajit’s statement that in 2002, he worked under the leadership of then Congress chief minister Prithviraj Chavan against his wish, Patole said the NCP leader should have left the government if he was not willing to work under Chavan. “If Ajit Pawar has 145 MLAs with him, he should definitely become the chief minister,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, Ajit’s name was missing from the NCP’s list of 15 star campaigners for Karnataka, where the party is planning to field about 40 candidates in the assembly elections. Besides party chief Pawar, senior leaders Praful Patel, MP Supriya Sule, MP Fauzia Khan and some middle-level leaders are in the list.