Sharad Pawar’s olive branch to Congress: Back to being friends or balancing act?

In his political career of over half-a-decade, Pawar was not always a Congressman, but his style of politics was similar to the grand old party.

On his 77th birthday on Tuesday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar will be leading a protest rally of Congress, NCP and other Opposition parties in Nagpur, along with senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. Two separate protest marches of the Congress and NCP will merge and culminate in a rally to protest against the policies of the BJP-led government. Pawar will be leading such a rally after more than three decades.

In his political career of over half-a-decade, Pawar was not always a Congressman, but his style of politics was similar to the grand old party. (FILE)

In state’s political circles, there are speculations that this rally could be a significant step, with the Congress and NCP coming together after parting ways ahead of the Assembly elections in 2014. There are also speculations that the event will be the beginning of the Opposition unity in Maharashtra as smaller parties such as Peasants and Workers Party and Samajwadi Party too will participate.

Pawar’s on-off relation with Congress

In his political career of over half-a-decade, Pawar was not always a Congressman, but his style of politics was similar to the grand old party. He left the Congress twice. First time in 1978 to be part of Congress (S) and returned to the party in 1987 during the late Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as the Prime Minister. Second time, he floated the NCP in 1999 after he rebelled against Sonia Gandhi over the issue of her foreign origin. Within six months, he was back in an alliance with the Congress after the Assembly elections in Maharashtra. The election threw a fractured mandate and the Congress-NCP came together to form a coalition government. The NCP contested 2004 Lok Sabha elections as part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

The next ten years saw the two parties winning two Lok Sabha and two Maharashtra Assembly elections together and Pawar became a significant part of UPA. Even though he had rebelled against her, Sonia Gandhi respected Pawar as an ally of the Congress. On his part, Pawar was least troublesome ally for the Congress in two successive UPA governments at the Centre.

Things started turning bad between the two sides in the last couple of years of the UPA-II and when Prithviraj Chavan became the chief minister of Maharashtra. With BJP’s landslide victory in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the NCP started drifting from the UPA and ultimately the alliance ended ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls in 2014.

BJP and Pawar

As the BJP fell short of barely 23 seats to win power on its own, Pawar surprised everyone by extending unconditional support to the BJP government in Maharashtra. Later, Prime Minister Modi went to Baramati and declared Pawar was his guide in politics. That distanced Congress further. At the same time, the NCP seemed to be trying to be in good books of the BJP as its senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal was put behind bars in a corruption case and probe began into the irrigation scam in which Pawar’s nephew Ajit was under the scanner. The past three years saw the NCP rarely taking a strong line against the ruling BJP governments in the state or at the Centre.

However, now there are murmurs in the NCP that Pawar is not very happy with the current situation. The NCP doesn’t get along well with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is more inclined towards getting Shiv Sena on his side rather than ‘scam-hit’ party.

. As such, the process of NCP-Congress coming together has begun, say NCP insiders. Current state Congress chief Ashok Chavan, too, is in favour of the two parties coming together to counter the BJP as they share a common voter base. The groundwork was done earlier this year, when Chavan and Ajit Pawar together started a ‘yatra’ demanding farm loan waiver. Now Pawar and Azad leading a joint protest rally on Tuesday could be the next step forward.

The doubts

However, there is a sizable section in the Congress that does not trust Pawar. Some of them suspect that Pawar is joining the Congress to deny the party an advantage of occupying the entire Opposition space, which will suit the BJP. Some of them suspect Pawar is doing what he does the best: the balancing act between the BJP and the Congress so he will end up with the winning side post 2019, no matter who wins. Whatever is the truth, the fact remains that the Congress would need the NCP in Maharashtra if it wants to put up a formidable challenge to the BJP. And who knows this better than Pawar?