Seasoned Maratha warrior who had the last laugh

If anyone has emerged a winner in the post-poll political drama in Maharashtra, it’s none other than Sharad Pawar. The old Maratha warhorse of Maharashtra politics has outwitted his rivals from the BJP right from the beginning of the Assembly election camlpaign in the western state.

Remember, the Enforcement Directorate sent a notice to senior Pawar right in the midst of the elections. Pawar’s first reaction was to announce that he would walk into the ED office the very next day for questioning.

Anybody else in his place would have panicked and gone looking for cover. Not Pawar.

The result was that the Mumbai Police Commissioner personally rushed to Sharad Pawar’s residence, literally begging him not to go to the ED office to maintain peace in Mumbai. A defensive government backed down. Round One went to Pawar even before the election campaign was yet to warm up, with the Modi-Shah juggernaut losing face on this count.

Pawar then flung himself into the campaign, taking reign of both his party, the NCP, and its ally, the Congress. It was no mean election even for Pawar. His rival was not Devendra Fadnavis. Pawar was fighting Narendra Modi, barely five months after the latter’s stunning victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Modi was clearly at his peak of popularity while the entire Opposition was not just down and out but was literally down in the dumps.

Pawar, in such dire circumstances, not just led the alliance from the front. He also enthused the rank and file of both the NCP and the Congress to fight back. Maharashtra results were literally unbelievable: NCP got 54 seats while the Congress got 44 seats. Pawar was now back in the game as a formidable opponent in Maharashtra politics.

With the elections over and NCP established as a key player, Pawar now turned to look for possibilities to outwit the BJP in the game of thrones. Once he got the whiff of the differences between the BJP and the Shiv Sena over the issue of rotation of chief ministerial post in the alliance government, Pawar jumped into the game, playing Udhav Thackeray against Fadnavis.

The seasoned Maratha player rightly sensed the burning desire within Udhav to be the Chief Minister of the richest state in the country. Pawar stoked the fire by offering a full five-year term to Udhav in the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance. Udhav seemed inclined.

But Pawar had a bigger challenge up his sleeve now. He had managed Mumbai well so far. He had to soften Delhi too. Pawar had to bring two diametrically diverse poles of Indian politics together. Imagine, a communal Shiv Sena joining hands with a secular Congress in a government.

It was unthinkable to reconcile the opposites except for Pawar who sold the theory of Modi being the bigger threat to the Indian secular fabric, as against Udhav, to the Congress. A reluctant Sonia Gandhi eventually came around with the party biggies nudging her to take a decision. She finally agreed and Pawar now had the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance under his belt.

Pawar now had the numbers. He dashed back to Mumbai to put his act together for government formation. But just then, the Modi-Shah duo struck, imposing President’s Rule in the state after BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis announced he didn’t have the numbers. The plot was to split the opponents’ ranks and come back to power.

Modi’s hatchet man Shah struck first, trying to engineer a split in the NCP camp itself. No one else but Sharad’s own nephew and his closest political aide Ajit Pawar stabbed his uncle in the back and crossed over to the BJP in a midnight coup.

It was now or never for the Maratha warrior because Pawar’s own political survival was at stake if the BJP returned to power. Now Sharad Pawar was at his best, convincing allies to stand firm, contacting the rebel MLAs and convincing them to come home and finally forcing Ajit Pawar to surrender.

The determined senior Pawar had the last laugh. But what a memorable battle this Maratha warrior fought, turning the tide against all odds and leading the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance to power – something no one imagined even after Maharashtra election results were announced.