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Sharad Pawar - Master of cuts & swings
A political mentor of many top rung leaders of our times, NCP chief and Union Minister Sharad Pawar is probably the biggest icons of the Maratha pride today and one of the most powerful grass-root leaders of the country.
Ritesh K Srivastava
A political mentor of many top rung leaders of our times, NCP chief and Union Minister Sharad Pawar is probably the biggest icons of the Maratha pride today and one of the most powerful grass-root leaders of the country.
Owing to his long innings in parliamentary democracy, Pawar possesses vast organizational and administrative capabilities, which are admired even by his stanch political opponents.
Pawar as been in and out of his state as a Union Minister besides having served as the chief minister of Maharashtra for multiple terms and still commands respect of his supporters and maintains a firm grip over his party – Nationalist Congress Party or NCP. In 1999, then a top Congress leader, Pawar opposed Sonia Gandhi’s elevation as Prime Minister over her Italian nationality and broke away from the party to float the NCP.
Though Pawar was never pardoned (as it is clear in KV Thomas’ biography “Sonia - The beloved of masses” where there is a full chapter on it) for ‘backstabbing’ Sonia Gandhi, he still maintains a cordial leadership with the Gandhis and his party is an integral constituent of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). This again indicates Pawar’s ability to turn foes into friends.
However he still keeps the Congress on his next move. In the run up to the Lok Sabha polls, amid the clamour for declaring Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate of the Congress for 2014 polls, the NCP had issued statement that Congress can decide on its PM candidate but UPA’s candidate will be chosen only by its partners.
Though Pawar has ruled himself out of the PM race, his party leaders have been making regular statements claiming that he is the most suitable candidate for the PM’s job. Interestingly, Pawar is not contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha elections this time and intends to take the Rajya Sabha route to Parliament.
However, no one disagrees that Pawar has long harboured the ambition to become the PM but has always missed the bus due to bad stroke of fate. So it did not surprise anyone when senior Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde recently said that he wanted to see the Maratha strongman and his political mentor become PM. The home minister he later retracted by issuing a statement in favour of Rahul Gandhi but the message was sent loud and clear.
But there is more than what meets the eye in Shinde’s case as it also indicated a growing unrest in senior leaders of Congress over Rahul Gandhi’s style of functioning, especially with regard to his attempts to look over the party elders.
Pawar, too, is also not very keen to be part of a cabinet led by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who was not even born when he contested his first assembly election. Probably that’s the reason why the Maratha strongman has been very vocal about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership skills and never approved his candidature for the top job. The Pawar camp is also upset with Prithviraj Chavan led Congress government in Maharashtra for blaming several NCP ministers in the Adarsh housing society scam.
Off late, the Maratha leader has been cozying up with BJP strongman Narendra Modi but the main opposition party has not given much importance to this and chided Pawar for his habit of making a U-turn before every elections.
At the moment, the veteran wants to enjoy every bit of his remaining political career, which began in 1967 when he contested and won elections to the Maharashtra assembly. Pawar belongs to a select league of politicians who have never lost a single battle in the electoral arena - a distinction that eluded even former prime ministers like Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Though he is set to enter Parliament via the Rajya Sabha route, Pawar will remain active in politics and keep guiding his party and mentoring the next generation of the NCP leaders at its chief.
Before he actually retires, Pawar has to settle the issue of succession. Pawar has to chose between his daughter and MP Supriya Sule, who is mainly focused on national politics, and his nephew and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.
Despite several flip-flops in his four decade long political career, Pawar has always come out of tricky situations as a winner, demonstrating his abilities to cobble up new equations and make new friends. His effective handling of the relief and rehabilitation works in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes in Latur and Osmanabad districts impressed many bureaucrats of his time who swear by his administrative acumen even today. But, as it is said, there are no permanent friends and enemies in politics and often circumstances give birth to new political alignments, so no one knows how the wind will blow post May 16. The NCP, which is an integral constituent of the UPA, has an alliance with the Congress only in Maharastra and Goa, and the former has always accused the latter of taking unilateral decisions on key issues. So the question whether Pawar will play a kingmaker or king himself will depend on how well the NCP performs in the coming polls.
A political mentor of many top rung leaders of our times, NCP chief and Union Minister Sharad Pawar is probably the biggest icons of the Maratha pride today and one of the most powerful grass-root leaders of the country.
Owing to his long innings in parliamentary democracy, Pawar possesses vast organizational and administrative capabilities, which are admired even by his stanch political opponents.
Pawar as been in and out of his state as a Union Minister besides having served as the chief minister of Maharashtra for multiple terms and still commands respect of his supporters and maintains a firm grip over his party – Nationalist Congress Party or NCP. In 1999, then a top Congress leader, Pawar opposed Sonia Gandhi’s elevation as Prime Minister over her Italian nationality and broke away from the party to float the NCP.
Though Pawar was never pardoned (as it is clear in KV Thomas’ biography “Sonia - The beloved of masses” where there is a full chapter on it) for ‘backstabbing’ Sonia Gandhi, he still maintains a cordial leadership with the Gandhis and his party is an integral constituent of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). This again indicates Pawar’s ability to turn foes into friends.
However he still keeps the Congress on his next move. In the run up to the Lok Sabha polls, amid the clamour for declaring Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate of the Congress for 2014 polls, the NCP had issued statement that Congress can decide on its PM candidate but UPA’s candidate will be chosen only by its partners.
Though Pawar has ruled himself out of the PM race, his party leaders have been making regular statements claiming that he is the most suitable candidate for the PM’s job. Interestingly, Pawar is not contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha elections this time and intends to take the Rajya Sabha route to Parliament.
However, no one disagrees that Pawar has long harboured the ambition to become the PM but has always missed the bus due to bad stroke of fate. So it did not surprise anyone when senior Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde recently said that he wanted to see the Maratha strongman and his political mentor become PM. The home minister he later retracted by issuing a statement in favour of Rahul Gandhi but the message was sent loud and clear.
But there is more than what meets the eye in Shinde’s case as it also indicated a growing unrest in senior leaders of Congress over Rahul Gandhi’s style of functioning, especially with regard to his attempts to look over the party elders.
Pawar, too, is also not very keen to be part of a cabinet led by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who was not even born when he contested his first assembly election. Probably that’s the reason why the Maratha strongman has been very vocal about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership skills and never approved his candidature for the top job. The Pawar camp is also upset with Prithviraj Chavan led Congress government in Maharashtra for blaming several NCP ministers in the Adarsh housing society scam.
Off late, the Maratha leader has been cozying up with BJP strongman Narendra Modi but the main opposition party has not given much importance to this and chided Pawar for his habit of making a U-turn before every elections.
At the moment, the veteran wants to enjoy every bit of his remaining political career, which began in 1967 when he contested and won elections to the Maharashtra assembly. Pawar belongs to a select league of politicians who have never lost a single battle in the electoral arena - a distinction that eluded even former prime ministers like Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Though he is set to enter Parliament via the Rajya Sabha route, Pawar will remain active in politics and keep guiding his party and mentoring the next generation of the NCP leaders at its chief.
Before he actually retires, Pawar has to settle the issue of succession. Pawar has to chose between his daughter and MP Supriya Sule, who is mainly focused on national politics, and his nephew and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.
Despite several flip-flops in his four decade long political career, Pawar has always come out of tricky situations as a winner, demonstrating his abilities to cobble up new equations and make new friends. His effective handling of the relief and rehabilitation works in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes in Latur and Osmanabad districts impressed many bureaucrats of his time who swear by his administrative acumen even today. But, as it is said, there are no permanent friends and enemies in politics and often circumstances give birth to new political alignments, so no one knows how the wind will blow post May 16. The NCP, which is an integral constituent of the UPA, has an alliance with the Congress only in Maharastra and Goa, and the former has always accused the latter of taking unilateral decisions on key issues. So the question whether Pawar will play a kingmaker or king himself will depend on how well the NCP performs in the coming polls.