Sharad Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis: Chess moves by ace strategists

The Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra is witnessing a battle of moves and counter-moves between NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Although the contest is between two three-party alliances in Maharashtra, the strategies are largely planned by Fadnavis in the ruling Mahayuti and Pawar in the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

For the first time in its history, Baramati is witnessing a battle between two members of the Pawar family, and the senior Pawar—veteran of many a battle—has to spend time and energy to ensure that his fortress is not breached by his nephew, who knows the constituency inside out. Fadnavis, on his part, is leaving no stone unturned to help Ajit Pawar. He pacified Ajit’s traditional rivals who were unwilling to campaign for Sunetra Pawar in the election—the BJP’s Harshvardhan Patil and the Shiv Sena’s Vijay Shivtare who was hell-bent on contesting as an independent.

While Fadnavis and the BJP tried to keep Pawar busy in Baramati, the latter worked out his own plans for some seats in western Maharashtra. He managed to get the powerful Mohite-Patil clan on his side in Madha constituency—spread between Solapur and Satara districts—by fielding Dhairyasheel Mohite-Patil there. By getting the Mohite-Patils and former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde to bury the hatchet, Pawar has also made it difficult for the BJP to retain Solapur where Shinde’s daughter, Praniti, is a Congress candidate.

Again, in a bid to ensure the support of the Dhangar (shepherd) community, which has a strong presence in western Maharashtra and Marathwada, Pawar tried to win over Dhangar leader Mahadev Jankar who heads the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh. An alarmed Fadnavis moved quickly and convinced Jankar to stay with the NDA.

When his move failed, Pawar and the Mohite-Patils pulled Uttam Jankar, a local BJP leader from the same community, to their side. Fadnavis again stepped in, even sending a chartered plane to Uttam to travel to Mumbai and meet him. Pawar then upped the offer and promised Uttam a party ticket from the reserved constituency of Malshiras. Malshiras is a stronghold of the Mohite-Patils, which means the candidate supported by the clan has better chances of winning the assembly seat. Uttam Jankar is now campaigning for Mohite-Patil in Madha. Sharad Pawar has also roped in young legislator Nilesh Lanke from the Ajit Pawar faction to contest Ahmednagar against the BJP’s Sujay Vikhe-Patil.

It was Pawar who convinced Shahu Maharaj, a direct descendant of Maratha king Shivaji Maharaj, to contest from Kolhapur. Fadnavis, on his part, stood by another descendant of Shivaji Maharaj, Udayanraje Bhonsle, who was keen to contest from Satara constituency, which is considered a stronghold of Pawar Senior. The NCP (SP) has fielded labour leader Shashikant Shinde opposite the BJP’s Bhonsle. With a close contest in Satara, the NCP (SP) may find it difficult to retain the seat.

The first phase of voting is over, and with each passing phase the tussle between the two top leaders is likely to intensify further.

Bhujbal’s Backout

Chhagan Bhujbal is a disappointed and unhappy man. He had prepared to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Nashik, announcing publicly that union home minister Amit Shah had suggested his name. In the seat-sharing talks of the three ruling parties, the BJP had suggested that the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leave the Nashik seat for the Ajit Pawar-led NCP to enable Bhujbal to contest from there. Shinde, however, was not willing to concede the seat where the sitting MP, Hemant Godse, is from his party.

Bhujbal has been a top target of Maratha outfits due to his strong opposition to their demand of quota benefits to Marathas from the OBC kitty. As such, the BJP wanted to make a political statement. NCP insiders, however, say the party leadership was not keen to field Bhujbal and take on the Marathas in the middle of the election. End result: An unwilling Bhujbal on Friday announced that he was backing out of the contest.

Not meant to be

Strange things happen in politics.

Senior NCP leader Dilip Walse-Patil and NCP candidate from the Shirur Lok Sabha constituency, Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil, were once close friends. The friends turned rivals as Adhalrao, who runs an IT company, decided to join politics. He joined the Shiv Sena, contested from Shirur and was elected in 2004, 2009 and 2014. Walse Patil played a key role when the NCP’s Amol Kolhe defeated Adhalrao in 2019.

Things changed last year when Ajit Pawar split the NCP and Walse Patil chose to go with him. Looking for a strong candidate in Shirur to defeat Kolhe who stayed with Pawar Senior, Ajit and Co zeroed in on Adhalrao, who joined the NCP. Walse Patil buried the hatchet with his long-lost friend. Just when there was curiosity in political circles about how the duo would campaign together, Walse Patil had an accident at home on March 27 and landed in hospital with a broken leg and wrist. Sitting on a hospital bed in Pune, Walse Patil supervised the task of preparing the party’s manifesto, but cannot go out and campaign for Adhalrao. Meanwhile, Adhalrao has announced in one of his rallies that he will not contest again if he loses this election.