Sharad Pawar resigns, then rethinks

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar announced on Tuesday that he was stepping down as president of the party he founded in 1999.

The shock announcement, made at the Mumbai launch of his autobiography Lok Mazhe Sangati, left his party reeling with many senior leaders breaking down while yet others clambering onto the dais entreating him not to do so. For over two hours they would not let Pawar leave the stage until he took back his decision.

Such was the pressure mounted on him through the day that he finally asked for another 2-3 days to consider his decision ‘more deeply’. This was conveyed to the media by Ajit Pawar, the man widely believed to have prompted his uncle’s drastic move in the first place. Ajit Pawar also used the occasion to request NCP MLAs and office bearers to stop bombarding his uncle with their resignations.

“After such a long career, a person should also think of stopping at some point,” Sharad Pawar, 83, told over 600 party men gathered at the YB Chavan auditorium on Tuesday morning. He ruminated over his long and illustrious career before going on to clarify that he was stepping away from party leadership but not public life. “Constant travel has become an integral part of my life. I will continue to attend public events and meetings. Whether I am in Pune, Mumbai, Baramati, Delhi or any other part of India, I will be available to all of you as usual. I will continue to work round the clock to solve people’s problems.” But it was time, he added, “for a new generation to guide the party and the direction it intends to take.” He then announced the setting up of a committee which included leaders loyal to Ajit Pawar, which would decide who the next NCP president should be.

In the last few weeks the NCP has been beset with internal strife and speculation that some MLAs were deserting the party along with a restive Ajit Pawar to align with the BJP in Maharashtra. On Tuesday, Ajit Pawar was the only prominent leader who supported Pawar’s decision to step down even as others entreated him not to do so. “If he is not the president, it does not mean he is not in the party. He is looking to create new leadership... The new party chief will work under saheb’s leadership”, said Ajit Pawar who had last week taken a dig at Sharad Pawar’s advancing years to say that some leader step away when they get old.

Sharad Pawar set up the NCP along with Tariq Anwar and PA Sangma following a bitter split with the Indian National Congress in 1999, and has remained the party’s sole president. The NCP, which recently lost its tag as a national party, has since emerged as a formidable force in Maharashtra politics, forming government on four occasions—in 1999, 2004, 2009, and then briefly in 2019 as part of the MVA.

In recent years though, a resurgent BJP and the many cases filed by central agencies against NCP leaders has led to unease in the party and also the lack of clarity over a potential successor to Pawar. The choice boils down to his daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule and nephew Ajit Pawar who enjoys grassroots support in Maharashtra and also among the party rank and file. In recent weeks, a slew of posters appeared across the state announcing Ajit Pawar as the right man to be Maharashtra CM. These posters have added grist to the rumours that he is set to join the BJP government with a handful of NCP MLAs loyal to him.

Sharad Pawar’s decision to resign from party presidentship as much as his decision to re-think becomes significant in the backdrop of these rumours. Whether it’s testing his party’s loyalty or the command he still has over them, Tuesday’s move is but an opening gambit in the long game that will follow.