Pawar goes from critic to defender of dynasty

In 2014, Sharad Pawar chose to snub Rahul Gandhi by staying away from the meeting after the latter had to stand in for his mother who had taken ill

Many years ago, when Sharad Pawar was still in the Congress and resentful of having to kowtow to successive members of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, he was sure that after Rajiv Gandhi, he would not defer to the latter’s son Rahul, more than 30 years his junior.

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar. (HT File Photo)

What he never expected was that in the interregnum, there would be Rajiv’s widow Sonia, who would take over the Congress and become the soul of the party for the next 20 years.

Sharad Pawar was among the highest-ranking leaders of the party at the time, but there were many reasons why Sonia did not trust him with party leadership.

Her advisors too had reasons to humiliate Pawar and a break-up was bound to happen after they began to appoint party executives in Baramati, Pawar’s own fiefdom, without consulting him.

Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin was a handy tool to justify the splitting of the party. But what Pawar never expected was that both party workers and the general voters would vest more faith in her than in him — he did not get the sweeping swing in his favour after he formed the Nationalist Congress Party which, at best, became a rump. Electorally too, his party remained confined to western Maharashtra.

Two decades have not improved things much for the NCP, and Pawar’s fears that Congressmen will eventually have to deal with Rahul have come true, but with a difference.

At the closing rally of the Congress and NCP in 2014, Pawar chose to snub Rahul by staying away from the meeting after Rahul had to stand in for his mother who had taken ill. It sent a negative message to voters.

Not surprisingly, six months later the NCP worked out an informal arrangement with the BJP to break ties with the Congress and Shiv Sena, respectively, ahead of the assembly polls. Since then, the NCP has lost a lot of its political mileage.

Rahul has been pretty deferent and accommodative of elders in his party and among his allies. So after some tentative interactions through Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, there seems to be a thawing of relations between the Pawars and Gandhis.

Congress leaders in the state have been unusually forgiving of the betrayal and Pawar too seems to have come to the conclusion that his party’s future rests on the secular side of the national chasm, and has now taken on Narendra Modi in no uncertain terms.

Twenty years on, at a party meet in Nashik this week, he recalled the sacrifices of the Nehru-Gandhi family for the nation and has been more vocal than Congress leaders in reminding voters that two prime ministers from this family gave up their lives for the country. What’s more, he has taken to referring to Modi as a “national calamity”, clearly indicating that the gloves are off and the Congress-NCP is going for broke this election season.

What is different for Pawar this time, though, that he has gone from rebelling to defending the dynasty? One can understand the Congress’s need to have Pawar on its side. Strangely, though the party was doing pretty well without the NCP at the local self-government elections, Congress leaders in the state do not have the confidence to win the upcoming elections on their own.

For Pawar, it could finally be the realisation of his ambition and life-long dream. He is the senior-most leader of the coalition that is being referred to as the mahagatbandhan, and while he is well-networked with almost all the leaders including Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu, it would seem his wariness of the Nehru-Gandhis is dissipating.

There is now a clear recognition that for all that he had dismissed Rahul Gandhi as ‘without spark’, it is only the Congress president who has been consistent and unwavering in his opposition to Narendra Modi. But much more than that, Pawar recognises that, like his mother, Rahul is not tempted by the office of prime minister.

Last time, Pawar lost out with Sonia Gandhi because of his reputation for untrustworthiness. Her son might be willing to reconsider that opinion and step back for Pawar. The stakes are high for both but this is the last stand for Pawar. He is unlikely to mess up this time around.