Unease in alliance: Ajit gets Amit Shah’s word on power-sharing deal

Amit Shah heard him out and after the 40-minute-long meeting assured the NCP rebel delegation that he would look into the issues raised by them. “He assured us that he would speak to his party and to the Shiv Sena after the assembly elections and we hope the changes will be visible soon,” said one of the NCP leaders present at the meeting

Mumbai: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s sudden meeting with home minister Amit Shah in Delhi was necessitated for multiple reasons but chiefly it was about chief minister Eknath Shinde’s handling of the Maratha agitation and the short shrift being given to Pawar and his team.

Unease in alliance: Ajit gets Amit Shah’s word on power-sharing deal

The NCP rebel leader was conspicuously absent during the last few days of Manoj Jarange-Patil’s agitation, as he was laid low by dengue. But his sudden dash to Delhi, a day after he tweeted that he wouldn’t be meeting anyone as he was still unwell, would suggest that his self-isolation was also a way to show his unhappiness at the way things have been unfolding in the three-party alliance.

Sources say Pawar and party leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare went to meet Shah with a laundry-list of grouses that ranged from much-promised and much-delayed cabinet expansion, the undermining of his authority after Shinde ensured that all his decisions are first routed through deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, effectively leaving Pawar with two bosses.

Ajit Pawar also conveyed his concerns about the government’s handling of Jarange-Patil. He fears too much importance is being accorded to the Maratha agitator, and that it has the potential of upsetting the equally powerful OBC bloc in Maharashtra. Amit Shah heard him out and after the 40-minute-long meeting assured the NCP rebel delegation that he would look into the issues raised by them. “He assured us that he would speak to his party and to the Shiv Sena after the assembly elections and we hope the changes will be visible soon,” said one of the NCP leaders present at the meeting.

Ajit Pawar’s contention is that with barely a year left for the assembly elections, maximum legislators and leaders from his faction should be given positions of powers which they can use to improve their presence at local level. However, Shinde is not letting that happen.

“We have very little time in our hands. If they want us to deliver in the Lok Sabha elections, then they will have to give what has been agreed upon,” the leader quoted above said.

The friction between Shinde and Ajit began with the former opposing induction of the NCP camp into the coalition government and allocating him finance portfolio. It took BJP 12 days to convince Shinde to let it go.

A tough administrator, Ajit was expecting a free hand in the three-party government. On August 8, he chaired a meeting to review projects related to Pune that were being monitored by the chief minister’s war room. But it did not go down well with the CM.

As finance minister when Ajit on August 21 put stringent conditions on six sugar cooperative mills controlled by BJP leaders for securing loans from National Cooperative Development Corporation, Shinde reversed the decision in the same month, on August 30.

Shinde and Fadnavis then worked out a system that all the major decisions taken by Ajit would first be screened by Fadnavis and then would come to Shinde for approval. “This has upset Ajit and he wants his authority back as deputy chief minister,” a senior NCP leader said.

Ajit has made no secret how he disapproves Shinde’s handling of Maratha reservation issue and the hunger strike by Jarange-Patil. As a result, he made no efforts to either defend the government or convince Marathas to bring violent protests under control.

Coincidentally, Chhagan Bhujbal - a prominent OBC leader from Ajit camp - has begun publicly objecting to Shinde’s decision to undertake a drive to give Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas if they produce pre-Independence era documents to support their claim and get benefits of OBC reservation. Ajit has made no efforts to restrain Bhujbal either.

Ajit’s main problem is that he thinks Shinde is not fit to lead the government, said a BJP leader. “Since he has split the party of BJP’s biggest enemy, Sharad Pawar, and given a chance to decimate MVA, he should be made chief minister. Under current circumstances, that is unlikely to happen. Our leadership will take a call on how to deal with his problems.”

Political analyst Abhay Deshpande said BJP thought their combination with Shinde was not strong enough against MVA and hence Ajit was brought in, but that too doesn’t seem to be working. “On the contrary it has led to confusion. Ajit, who was inducted as a mass-based politician, was completely aloof during the Maratha reservation issue along with Fadnavis who was on the backfoot after the Jalna lathicharge.”