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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Why Sharad Pawar is on a campaign blitz
The 78-year-old battle-hardened Maratha strongman has addressed over 50 rallies in the past one month, crisscrossing Maharashtra to campaign not only for his party but the Congress and other alliance partners as well in a state that elects 48 Lok Sabha members, second only to Uttar Pradesh’s 80.
The scorching summer heat has not deterred Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief, Sharad Chandra Govindrao Pawar, from campaigning extensively in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The 78-year-old battle-hardened Maratha strongman has addressed over 50 rallies in the past one month, crisscrossing Maharashtra to campaign not only for his party but the Congress and other alliance partners as well in a state that elects 48 Lok Sabha members, second only to Uttar Pradesh’s 80.
Political analysts attribute Pawar’s campaign blitz to the twin objectives of fulfilling his national ambitions and also strengthening the NCP ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections due in October this year.
The NCP supremo himself is not contesting the Lok Sabha polls in line with his announcement in 2013, when he decided to retire from electoral politics after 47 years.
He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2014, when the veteran opted for a seat in Upper House for the first time in his political career.
This time around, there was some speculation of Pawar returning to the electoral stage by contesting the Madha constituency in Solapur district, but Pawar decided against it. He fielded his grandson, Parth Pawar, from the Maval Lok Sabha seat in Pune.
Parth is the son of his nephew, Ajit Pawar. His daughter, Supriya Sule, is also seeking a third term in the Lok Sabha from Baramati.
Maharashtra chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, had in fact used cricket terminology to suggest that Pawar ran away from an electoral contest because he was undone by a “googly” bowled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a reference to PM Modi’s jibe at an alleged tiff in Pawar’s family.
“The NCP’s captain had put on his pads, gloves and helmet and announced that he would hit a century. But Modi saheb delivered such a googly that he headed to the pavilion and became 12th man,” Fadnavis said.
Asked at a news conference in Pune if the fear of a possible defeat had made him rethink fighting the Lok Sabha polls, Pawar said, “I have successfully faced 14 elections. Do you think the 15th will deter me?”
Having fought and won his first election from Baramati in 1967, Pawar won Madha in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Pawar and Modi, who have publicly acknowledged that they enjoy a good rapport and have respect for each other, have engaged in acrimonious exchanges and personal attacks in their election campaigns. In one of his public meetings, the Prime Minister said Pawar had lost his grip over the NCP and was battling “family feuds”.
Pawar was quick to hit back. “One who does not have a family would not know what a family is,” he retorted, and said Modi need not worry because the Pawars were “very much united”.
He has been aggressive as well. The usually composed Pawar hit out publicly at senior NCP leader and former deputy chief minister, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, for attending a rally addressed by the Prime Minister in Solapur on April 17. The latter’s son, Ranjitsinh, recently crossed over to the BJP.
“Now that you went there, I have nothing to say. But next time, don’t go there clad in half chaddis (underpants). Don’t compel us to see your thighs and legs... Exercise caution... What will the people think,” Pawar said in a reference to the khaki shorts worn by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mohite-Patil quickly countered. “Why did the langoti (loincloth)-clad pehelwan (strongman) of Baramati run away from the election arena if he is not scared of the chaddiwalas?”
The NCP boss is also giving a personal touch to his indefatigable campaign.In one such instance narrated by an NCP colleague, Pawar earlier this month came to know about the shortage of feed and water for cattle in several villages of Osmanabad district, after addressing a rally there.
He at once decided to send back his chopper and visited some of the affected villages in a car despite his party leaders advising him not to do so, the NCP functionary said.
Pawar also visited the family of a farmer, Vijay Dawale, who had committed suicide in his village, Kasbe Tadwale, after being allegedly cheated by a bank official and a Shiv Sena leader whose name he mentioned in a suicide note.
Pawar has been consistently raising farmers’ issues in his rallies, attacking the Modi government over its “lack of policies for agricultural and industrial growth due to which unemployment has increased manifold in Maharashtra which is otherwise the most industrialised state” in the country.
The NCP president also claims that over 11,990 farmers have committed suicide since the BJP government assumed office at the Centre, and accused the Prime Minister of deliberately avoiding talking about farm distress, water scarcity and price rise in his election meetings.
Lastly, he managed to rope in Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray to campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah across the state, according to a NCP functionary, although both NCP and MNS have denied any such tacit understanding.
The move is widely expected to hurt the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.
Thackeray has maintained that he was campaigning against Modi and Shah only because he wanted to see the exit of them both.
Also, to ensure that the anti-BJP votes are not getting divided, Raj Thackeray has not fielded any candidate from his party in the Lok Sabha elections.
According to political analysts, Pawar senses a big opportunity of becoming the Prime Minister this time in case a hung Parliament emerges from the seven-phase general election ending on May 19. To be sure, he remains the tallest opposition leader among the current lot.
The NCP chief has maintained that an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance will form the government and that who will be the next Prime Minister will be decided after the election.
“Pawar realises that in case a non-BJP government comes to power, this would be his best and last chance to assume the top post,” said Pune-based political analyst, Suhas Palshikar.
Another motive is to ensure that the NCP is not in crisis at the time of assembly elections.
“His efforts are to consolidate the NCP given that its main strength is in Maharashtra. If the NCP doesn’t do well in the state, it will obviously impact his national ambition,” Palshikar said.
After the Karnataka elections last year, Pawar has also been instrumental in bringing all the opposition leaders on one platform as part of his efforts to build a broad-based coalition.
He and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief, N Chandrababu Naidu, tried their best to ensure that the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) struck an alliance in Delhi but could not succeed because both parties stuck to their guns.
“That definitely is an indicative of his national ambition,” Palshikar added.
