Crown of thorns in the opposition

When Ajit Pawar became the leader of the opposition, expectations were high. His performance has not matched up so far. A significant number of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) legislators are not happy with his performance so far

Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar always had the reputation of an efficient leader - whether it was handling the administration as a minister or as a politician looking after the party organisation or managing election machinery of the NCP. His current tenure as leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly, however, may turn out to be an exception. A significant number of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) legislators think that his performance as opposition leader has not been up to their expectations so far.

Ajit Pawar became leader of the opposition in the assembly after the Eknath Shinde government came to power in June this year. According to reports at the time, party chief Sharad Pawar was in favour of making Jayant Patil the opposition leader but Ajit did not let it happen and took the position for himself. (HT PHOTO)

Pawar became leader of the opposition in the assembly after the Eknath Shinde government came to power in June this year. According to reports at the time, party chief Sharad Pawar was in favour of making Jayant Patil the opposition leader but Ajit did not let it happen and took the position for himself. In state politics, the post of opposition leader in the legislature is very significant as the person becomes the voice and face of the opposition.

In the past, several politicians have left their mark as opposition leaders. Gopinath Munde shot to prominence after he led the opposition battle against then Sharad Pawar-led Congress government. Though Narayan Rane’s brief chief ministership was the peak of his political career, his performance as opposition leader in the assembly earned him accolades. Fadnavis probably carried as much weight as chief minister when he led the opposition during the MVA regime. Chhagan Bhujbal damaged the Shiv Sena-BJP government politically when he led the opposition in the legislative council. When Ajit Pawar became the leader of the opposition, expectations were high. His performance has not matched up so far.

Last Thursday as the MVA legislators had a meeting, it was quite evident that they were not happy over the way Pawar has been handling the issues on the floor of the assembly.

They felt that the opposition lost the opportunity to corner chief minister Eknath Shinde over the Nagpur land allotment issue in which the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court passed remarks against the government. They also felt that Ajit Pawar took a soft stand when senior legislator Jayant Patil was suspended from the assembly for his remarks against the Speaker. They felt that the opposition should have aggressively countered the move to suspend Patil. Not just that, Pawar even apologised in the house for Patil’s remarks. This while opposition MLAs hailed Patil, even carried him on their shoulders after his suspension, indicating their support for him.

Later, some of the senior NCP legislators even had a meeting at the MLA hostel room of one of them. They reportedly conveyed their unhappiness over Pawar to the top boss though Ajit has denied the same.

So what is really going on? Party colleagues say Ajit Pawar’s reluctance to corner the government could have something to do with the cases against him. Others say, he doesn’t want to follow Uddhav Thackeray’s agenda because it would portray the impression that the latter is the face of the MVA. There is still one week of winter session left. Will he change gears now?

‘Social’ impact

The state BJP top brass is not happy with the way the party’s functionaries are using social media. No, it’s not about trolling. It’s about the performance of the party leaders on social media. The party conducted an audit of the handles of its officebearers and the bosses were not pleased with the outcome. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis minced no words when he took his colleagues to task over the issue last Monday. Addressing a meeting of party office-bearers, Fadnavis revealed the findings of the survey: Only nine district presidents are doing well when it comes to using social media to further the party’s agenda - 31 of them performed poorly while 15 didn’t even have presence on social media. Some of the party MLAs did not bother to regularly update their Facebook pages or Twitter accounts. “Battle of the narratives is going to be significant in the 21st century. So many things are happening daily and if you don’t react to them, how will we fight this battle?” remarked an irked Fadnavis. He even pointed out that the common worker of the party was fighting this battle effectively and not the officebearers. We can expect a social media blitzkrieg by the BJP officebearers soon.

Shinde and Clinton

According to chief minister Eknath Shinde, former US president Bill Clinton is curious about him, the politician who is running the state that also governs India’s financial capital. Earlier this week, Shinde told reporters that he met a person whose relative works for Clinton. The latter told Shinde that the former US president was curious to know what he does and how he functions. Earlier, Shinde had said that 33 countries had taken note of his rebellion. Quite a feat, Mr CM!