The success of the Cockroach Janta Party agitation in Delhi, and the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, seems to have deepened the dilemma facing the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party—whether to join the BJP-led NDA or stay with the Congress in the INDIA bloc. At the same time, the Sunetra Pawar-led faction of the party, which is part of the NDA government in Maharashtra, is witnessing challenges to her leadership.
Maharashtra politics has seen interesting developments ever since Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde snatched away six MPs from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) a month ago. The aftershocks from the Shinde offensive were felt in the NCP(SP), too.
It was former chief minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan who first spotted the unease within the NCP(SP). He said five or six of its eight MPs were restless and the BJP wanted to do to it what it had done to the Sena (UBT). “I don’t know if they will go with the BJP, but there is pressure and I have been hearing that they are restless,” said Chavan.
Close on the heels of this, senior BJP minister Chandrakant Patil said that pressure was building on Sharad Pawar. “I think there is immense pressure on Pawar to take a decision from within the party, given his age,” said Patil.
The pressure was to either merge with the Congress or join the NDA. Reportedly, the second option was favoured by about half of the party’s MPs and MLAs, who saw no point in remaining in opposition. They expect joining the NDA to bring more development funds and improving their 2029 re-election chances. But after the setback the BJP suffered in the protests in Delhi, there seems to be a rethinking. Also, leaders such as former minister Jitendra Awhad want nothing to do with the BJP and would rather the NCP(SP) retain its independent identity within the INDIA bloc.
NCP(SP) working president Supriya Sule said there was no rift in the party. She told THE WEEK that all eight MPs were “like family” and she was constantly in touch with them. “I personally talk to our MPs and MLAs every alternate day. Trust me, nobody is unhappy among us. Whatever decision we take, it will be united and taken together,” she said. “Instead of discussing the economic failures of the state and the central governments, the media is making baseless speculations about our party merging with the Congress or joining the BJP-led NDA.”
Rumours of a merger between the NCP(SP) and the Congress surfaced a few weeks ago, with senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar referring to a proposal before the party high command. That conversation has since taken a back seat.
State Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal believes Pawar will not opt for the NDA given his Congress roots. A senior Congress leader noted that Pawar returned to the Rajya Sabha only because the Congress ceded the seat out of deference to his seniority. Even without a formal merger, said the leader, the party could absorb NCP(SP) leaders case by case, since most of them rose through Congress ranks.
Meanwhile, the first sign of the NCP(SP) softening its stance on the BJP came from Sule herself, when the Baramati MP said her party would back the delimitation bill if it delivered a 50 per cent increase in seats across the state. She said it was a position already held by regional parties in the opposition like the Trinamool Congress and the DMK. The NCP(SP) had voted against the bill when it was tabled in the budget session. “We have not received any bill yet. Whenever the bill is presented to us we will discuss it at the meeting of INDIA alliance parties and a collective decision will be made after considering the views of every party from the alliance,” she said.
Sule said party leader Jayant Patil’s recent meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, which set tongues wagging, was on a prior appointment and concerned action against an NCP(SP) municipal council president in Islampur. “He went in through the front door and left through the front door,” she said. About her own meeting with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow, she said she had friends in the BJP. “We meet often. That does not mean I am joining the NDA,” she said.
Apparently, the BJP wants the NCP factions to unite and join the NDA together, and it is said to be willing to offer three ministerial berths.
Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar and son Parth, a Rajya Sabha member, face their own challenges. Sachidanand Singh, a secretary in charge of the party in Jharkhand, has filed a legal notice contesting her election as national president, and Praful Patel, the party’s working president, recently spoke of the need for “corrective measures”. “It is difficult to fill in the vacuum created after the death of Ajit Pawar. The party needs to take corrective measures,” Patel told journalists in Mumbai.
A leader of the Sunetra Pawar-led NCP, however, said there were no merger talks on the agenda: “An issue like this will have to be discussed with the cadres and the leadership,” he said. “Their views will have to be understood and only then a firm decision or direction can be taken.”
