Ajit Pawar’s anger brewing for years?

Sharad Pawar brought Ajit, the son of his elder brother Anandrao, into politics. The family rift first became public when Ajit insisted that Parth, his elder son, be allowed to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Maval constituency.

Ajit Pawar’s decision to break away from the family and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and join hands with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was a result of the brewing discontent over the past few years, according to insiders in the know of the developments. The move came at a time when NCP chief Sharad Pawar was planning to form a three-party government with Shiv Sena and Congress.

Ajit Pawar was also named in the alleged irrigation scam worth ₹70,000 crore in the erstwhile Congress-NCP government and investigation in the case is still pending. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

Sharad Pawar brought Ajit, the son of his elder brother Anandrao, into politics. The family rift first became public when Ajit insisted that Parth, his elder son, be allowed to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Maval constituency. Pawar was not in favour of Parth contesting the general polls, but surrendered to the pressure from the family and declared his withdrawal from the electoral fray, saying only two members from the family should contest polls at a time. At the time, Pawar was preparing to contest from Madha constituency and had declared his daughter Supriya Sule’s name as the candidate from Baramati. Parth, however, lost the elections. Soon after the Lok Sabha elections, Pawar was seen promoting his other grandson, Rohit, the son of his nephew, Rajendra. With Pawar’s encouragement, Rohit successfully contested the Assembly elections from Karjat-Jamkhed constituency in Ahmednagar district.

Within the party circles, there have been talks of how the NCP chief would prefer Sule, as his political heir.

Sule is a late entrant in politics compared to Ajit, but is already a part of the core decision-making team of the party. She has also formed ‘Rashtrawadi Yuvati Congress’, a wing of young women in 2012.

Later, Pawar debunked Ajit’s appeal to party workers to put up saffron flags along with the party’s tricolour flag to claim the legacy of King Chhatrapati Shivaji, saying the decision was not of the party and he must have said this in his personal capacity. Pawar’s decision was seen as a response to Ajit’s growing clout in the party. Most party MLAs gets along well with him. He also has an image of an aggressive leader, which the party had experienced when he was appointed the deputy chief minister in 2010, following support of majority of MLAs against senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal.

Two months ago, in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly elections, he suddenly resigned from his position as a MLA and went incommunicado. He was said to be angry that senior party leaders were defending Sharad Pawar, but not him, against the enforcement directorate’s move to name the latter in the MSC Bank case. Ajit, too, is facing an ED probe in the case.

This said to be one of the reasons behind Ajit’s decision to move out of the party. “One cannot deny the possibility that the BJP may have blackmailed him by threatening about corruption cases against him,” said a former NCP minister.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut too has claimed that Ajit was “blackmailed” into joining hands with the BJP to form government in Maharashtra. He also said Ajit might return to the NCP fold.

“We have information how Ajit Pawar has been blackmailed and will expose this soon,” Raut told reporters on Saturday.

Ajit was also named in the alleged irrigation scam worth ₹70,000 crore in the erstwhile Congress-NCP government and investigation in the case is still pending.

Prakash Bal, a political analyst, said time will tell if he had struck a deal with BJP or was threatened to take such a decision. “It was a general perception that he will not break away the party, but one doesn’t know what deal he has struck with BJP. We also don’t know whether he was threatened with probe by enforcement directorate etc. Pawar family is very close knit and no one would have expected this. The reason behind his revolt will come out over a period of time,” Bal said.