Pawar vs Fadnavis, round 2

The first round began post the 2014 elections when Fadnavis, then chief minister, realised that he had to take on Pawar to establish his dominance in the state. It went on till 2019 as Fadnavis cracked down on NCP rule in cooperative sector, lured several Pawar aides to join BJP and also led the saffron combine to return to power

The ongoing controversy over lathicharge on Maratha protesters at Jalna is also turning out to be a political slugfest between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Pawar vs Fadnavis, round 2

This is the first face-off between the duo since Ajit Pawar split the NCP with the help of Fadnavis-BJP in June. Within hours of the news of police action at Atarvali Sarate village in Jalna district on Friday, Pawar was on Marathi channels, blaming Fadnavis who heads the home department. Fadnavis responded, reminding him that he had not taken responsibility when Gowari tribal protesters had died in a stampede following police lathicharge on them in Nagpur in 1994 when the senior Pawar was chief minister.

According to the Pawar camp, the NCP chief watched the videos of the incident and realised that it would turn into a major issue and so decided to visit Jalna. By Saturday afternoon, he was at ground zero.

With Pawar setting the tone, opposition leaders as well as several Maratha outfits are gunning for Fadnavis’ head. For the past three days, protests have been happening in different parts of the state, similar to the ones in 2016. BJP leaders say attempts are being made to show Fadnavis as the villain of the entire episode and set the sentiments among the Maratha community against him.

This is the latest in the political battle going on between Pawar - who has been calling the shot in state politics for over three decades - and Fadnavis who has largely been dominating the state politics since 2014.

The first round began post the 2014 elections when Fadnavis, then chief minister, realised that he had to take on Pawar to establish his dominance in the state. It went on till 2019 as Fadnavis cracked down on NCP rule in cooperative sector, lured several Pawar aides to join BJP and also led the saffron combine to return to power. Then Pawar struck post 2019 elections with Shiv Sena parting ways with BJP to form the MVA government, denying Fadnavis a second term.

The second round of their tussle began with Fadnavis waging war against MVA government. He succeeded in 2022 when he split the Sena and pulled down the government. A year later, he split the NCP which came as a setback to MVA. Pawar has now thrown a new gauntlet at Fadnavis. This could be the trailer of a grand battle in next elections.

Dada and dada

While Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis’ friendship is well known in political circles, the not-so-cordial relations between him and BJP minister Chandrakant Patil is also not a secret. In their tussle, it seems that Ajitdada is getting an upper hand versus Chandrakantdada, as both are called by their supporters. In the past few days, after he took over as deputy chief minister, Ajit has literally taken control of Pune district administration. He has started regular meetings of various departments to decide on key issues of Pune which has irked Patil who is the guardian minister of Pune. The latter complained to CM Shinde but that hasn’t solved the problem yet. Ajit clearly calls the shots in Pune. He has also been insisting on guardian ministership of Pune district and is likely to get it. The fact that Patil and Fadnavis are not exactly friends is also turning out to be a disadvantage for the former.

Sunetra to take on Supriya in Baramati?

There is buzz that Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra could contest Lok Sabha election opposite Supriya Sule in Pawar family’s pocketborough, Baramati. The speculations began as Sunetra was seen on stage as Ajit was felicitated in his constituency last month. Ajit’s sons, Parth and Jay, have also been active and have been reaching out to youths across the constituency. In fact, there have been speculations that BJP would prefer someone from Pawar family to contest from Baramati Lok Sabha constituency. A non-Pawar family candidate is unlikely to defeat Supriya as voters in Baramati still have a preference for the Pawar family, which has changed the fortunes of Baramati. In that case, Ajit would have the options of wife Sunetra or son Parth. Ajit’s aides say if he decides to field a family member, he would prefer Sunetra. She is a known name in Baramati as she is on a few institutions set up by senior Pawar as well as Ajit. Besides she has been taking part in election campaign management for Ajit as well as Supriya for the past few years. The question is: Will Ajit be ready to do this? Will he prefer to spoil the personal relations with uncle and his family to this extent? As it is, Ajit camp is wary of the reaction of traditional NCP voters by splitting the party. “Wait till the elections,” say his aides.

Cong’s social media war room

The Congress in the state has finally woken up to the aggressive social media use of BJP. For this, it has set up a social media war room at Tilak Bhavan, the party’s state headquarters in central Mumbai. The war room will be manned by 22 party volunteers. Congress workers are hoping that the war room would improve their poor presence on social media.