Shiv Sena backs Sharad Pawar as UPA chief, calls him ‘Bhishmapitamaha’

Shiv Sena, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra, on Thursday came out in support of the demand from within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) that its chief Sharad Pawar be made the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to bring together all opposition parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the national level

Shiv Sena, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra, on Thursday came out in support of the demand from within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) that its chief Sharad Pawar be made the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to bring together all opposition parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the national level. Sena also insisted that more parties needed to be inducted into the UPA.

Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut HT File Photo

Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut said it was necessary for Congress to expand the UPA after its drubbing in the recent elections to five state assemblies. Raut said as a senior politician, Pawar could get more parties into this anti-BJP front.

Senior BJP leader Madhav Bhandari said the leadership of the UPA would be decided by its constituents and those parties (Sena) who were not part of it were not expected to comment on this.

The NCP was initiating a discussion on the UPA’s leadership outside the UPA’s platform, he said. “Has any party that Pawar has been part of emerged stronger? Pawar is already part of the UPA; who has stopped him from getting new parties into the UPA? The logic that he should be made the chairperson to make the UPA stronger is bargaining,” Bhandari said.

On Tuesday, the national executive of the NCP’s youth wing passed a resolution in Pawar’s presence asking for him to be made the chairperson of the UPA.

“Unfortunately, Congress is not taking any initiative for it [to grow the presence of the UPA]. The UPA is not anybody’s private fief… Today, there are doubts about whether the UPA exists or not. If it wants to face the 2024 elections, then the UPA must be strengthened and more parties must be brought into its fold,” Raut said in New Delhi.

“Sharad Pawar is always at the forefront,” said Raut, while calling the NCP chief one of the “foremost pillars of opposition unity” and a “Bhishmapitamaha” or veteran in politics.

Raut said Maharashtra chief minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray too wanted all non-BJP parties to unite. Similar efforts were being made by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao. Raut said he had discussed with Pawar the proposed meeting of chief ministers of non-BJP states to be held in Mumbai. Thackeray would take the initiative in this, he added.

Incidentally, Sena is the senior alliance partner of Congress in the multi-party Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi but is formally not part of the UPA.

Congress has already made it clear that it is not in favour of handing over its space to the NCP at the national level. “Now, Sonia Gandhi is the chairman of the UPA and this is a decision of the UPA’s constituents… Sharad Pawar is a senior leader of this country and we respect him, but any decision about the UPA’s leadership has to be taken by the UPA’s members,” Maharashtra public works department minister and former chief minister Ashok Chavan said on Wednesday.

Raut said the existence of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was almost over, with its long-standing constituents like Sena and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) having left it. He predicted that the NDA would be revived by BJP only if a situation that it would not get a clear majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections would arise. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had also spoken to Raut regarding the need of leaders from parties that were earlier part of the NDA to meet and discuss the situation.