Pawar aims 50 seats in Maha polls, most from sugar belt

By inducting Harshavardhan Patil, 61, a key Bharatiya Janata Party leader from western Maharashtra, into his party on Monday, Sharad Pawar has effectively snuffed out recent speculation of a political rapprochement with his nephew.

Patil, who belongs to Indapur in Baramati, is a seasoned politician who has held successive ministerial positions in both BJP-Sena and Congress-NCP governments and is known for his long-standing rivalry with Ajit Pawar who had ensured his defeat from Indapur in the 2014 and 2019 assembly elections. The present incumbent from Indapur assembly constituency, Dattatray Bharne, shifted allegiance to Ajit Pawar when the NCP split. Once it became apparent to Patil that he would not be given a ticket from Indapur Assembly in 2024, it was a matter of time before he shifted loyalties again despite efforts from Devendra Fadnavis to dissuade him from leaving the party. Patil and his family are among the leading sugar barons from western Maharashtra—his father Sahajirao Patil was also a Congress MLA, and his switch to the BJP in 2019 was widely thought a personal triumph for Fadnavis.

Patil is also the second most prominent BJP leader from the sugar belt to have gone with Sharad Pawar in recent weeks. Last month, the erstwhile royal and BJP leader from Kolhapur, Samarjeeet Ghatge, quit the party to join NCP (SP).

In the shifting sands of Maharashtra politics these moves appear indicative of a larger pattern. Madhukar Pichad, once a close ally of Sharad Pawar who quit the NCP to join BJP in 2014 too is in advanced ghar wapsi talks. Pichad’s son Sandeep, the BJP MLA from Nagar-Akole constituency was defeated by Kiran Lahamate, the NCP candidate in 2019 who has since joined Ajit Pawar. Sandeep Pichad is unlikely to be given a ticket again from his home turf. This is in keeping with the understanding among the Mahayuti constituents in the seat-sharing talks that each party will retain the seat from where they have a sitting MLA. Pawar, who operates of the principle of ‘No permanent friends or enemies in politics,’ on the other hand, is looking for candidates to beat Ajit Pawar’s candidates.

But it’s not just the BJP that is losing leaders to him. At least three leaders from Ajit Pawar’s party too are in talks with Pawar. One of them, lawmaker Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, went to the extent of planning a trip to Mumbai just as Ajit Pawar reached Satara on his Jan samman yatra where all prominent party leaders were expected. Another Ajit Pawar MLA Babanrao Shinde is expected to go back to Sharad Pawar after his meeting with the latter last week where he sought an NCP (SP) ticket for his son from Solapur.

Pawar launched a massive outreach to influential political clans in western Maharashtra even before the Lok Sabha election, starting with the influential Mohite-Patil clan. Dhairyasheel Mohite-Patil was given the ticket from Madha Lok Sabha constituency where he defeated the BJP MP Ranjitsingh Naik-Nimbalkar. The talks with Harshvardhan Patil too are likely to have begun then because on Monday Patil publicly admitted that it was his “hidden hand” in Indapur that strengthened Supriya Sule’s fight against Sunetra Pawar in Baramati.

“This is just the beginning,” Pawar had said on Friday at the function to announce Harshvardhan Patil’s shift. “There are many people who are eager to work with us.” On October 14, he is holding a rally at Phaltan, Satara, which is hometown of NCP (Ajit) leader Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar who has been making overtures to return to the Sharad Pawar fold.

The sugar belt that stretches from Nashik to Kolhapur has been a traditional NCP stronghold. In the 2019 assembly elections, out of the 67 constituencies of western Maharashtra, the NCP-Congress alliance won 37. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls the MVA won 8 of the 12 seats in the region. Pawar is aiming to win 50 seats across Maharashtra, majority of them would be from western Maharashtra. 

For his part, Ajit Pawar tried to pacify his nervous flock on Monday at a rally in Satara. “I have been reading in newspapers that so and so has gone to the opposite side and so and so would soon be leaving...You need to understand, we have 40 MLAs. There is no question of denying any of them tickets in this election. It is the opposite side that needs people to field in those 40 constituencies,” he said adding that leaders from other parties would soon be joining the NCP (AP).