Dramatic developments captured in Supriya Sule’s WhatsApp status

In the ever-changing world of politics and communication, the modes of sending a message are always evolving.

In a novel move, the Nationalist Congress Party’s member of Parliament Supriya Sule, who happens to be the daughter of party leader Sharad Pawar, on Saturday chose WhatsApp status to make her family’s stand on the surprising turn of events in Maharashtra’s politics.

If the fax machine played a starring role in placing Jammu and Kashmir under President’s Rule in November 2018, Sule’s WhatsApp status update confirmed the split in the party that had been formed in 1999 when Sharad Pawar walked out of the Congress party over the issue of foreign origin of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

On Saturday morning, the swearing-in ceremony of Pawar’s nephew and former Maharashtra minister, Ajit, led to urgent speculation in political circles that the 78-year-old politician had outwitted the Congress and the Shiv Sena into thinking they were forming an alliance together when actually, the NCP was negotiating with the Bhartiya Janata Party.

Pawar distanced himself with a tweet but it was Sule’s personal and emotional messages which sounded more convincing that Ajit Pawar had gone rogue on the NCP.

Her first status update, which can be accessed by all those who are part of her contacts on the mobile messaging app, came at 10:44am and said ‘Party and Family split’. This came at a time when there was speculation that there was a deal between the BJP and the NCP according to which Sule would be made a cabinet minister.

The next WhatsApp update then came at 11:12am and was much more explicit about where she stood vis a vis her cousin and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.

“Who do you trust in life..never felt so cheated in my life. Defended him loved him..look what I get in return (sic)’’.

Hindustan Times spoke to Sule at this point and she reiterated this. “It is very clear from Mr Pawar’s tweet that there is a split in the NCP,’’ she said.

However, neither she nor her party were clear at that point, just how many MLAs were with Ajit. “These things take time,’’ she said.

Sule’s final WhatsApp status update came at 5:38pm. “Chin up..stand for good core values..honesty, integrity, strength, hard work and dliver superior results to serve the people (sic).’’

Incidentally, even the other side used WhatsApp updates. The BJP’s Gopal Aggarwal, who sat on the BJP podium with Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, said “Sharad Pawar and Congress had said that they had the mandate to sit in the opposition. Suddenly, how did it become the match-fixing to grab the chair’’.

In 2018, the assembly was dissolved in J-K after governor Satyapal Malik said his fax machine wasn’t working and so he didn’t receive the letter of the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) coming together to stake claim to form the government in the state.