Sharad Pawar has always been an integral part of Maharashtra Politics. And more than that he has created too many twists and turns in the lives of many who got lost in the process. Rival to many and friend to very few has been his personality. Most who have worked around him talk about his extreme discipline and his vicious thought process. He may have been a political Guru to some but we do not see any of his disciples being anywhere close to his astute behaviour. He has always played the snakes and ladders in Maharashtra with utmost passion and vengeance. Let’s know it better.
Pawar is one of the eleven children born to Govindrao Pawar and Shardabai Pawar. Govindrao’s relatives had relocated from neighbouring Satara to Baramati. In the Sahakari Kharedi Vikri Sangh, a Baramati Farmers’ Cooperative, Govindrao worked for a very long time. In the 1940s, he oversaw Shahu Boarding, a dorm for students. He played a key role in establishing cooperative sugar mills in the Baramati region in the 1950s. Between 1937 and 1952, Shardabai Pawar was elected three times to the district’s local board. Ten kilometres from Baramati in Katewadi, she took care of the family farm. Pawar attended BMCC in Pune, the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce. He participated in student politics despite being a typical student.
Pawar has held the position of Maharashtra’s chief minister four times. He lived in New Delhi for ten years while serving as a Union minister. When he joined Youth Congress in 1958, he started his political career. He was elected president of the Pune district of the Youth Congress four years later. Pawar has a mastery of political manoeuvres that spans his career from student politics to becoming the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and a Union minister. He was elected to the state legislature or the British Parliament after winning the assembly election in 1967 in his hometown of Baramati. He was 38 at the time and was elected as Maharashtra’s youngest chief minister in 1978. For two years, his Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) administration held sway. He was appointed chief minister of Maharashtra for a second time in 1988. He was appointed chief minister for the third time in 1990.
Pawar was appointed defence minister in the Narasimha Rao administration in 1991, and he held the position till March 1993. Following the resignation of the previous chief minister Sudhakarrao Naik due to riots in Mumbai, Pawar was elected as the fourth chief minister of Maharashtra in 1993. Up to the 1995 assembly elections, when Manohar Joshi was elected chief minister and the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition took control, Pawar was the chief minister. He, P. A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar were all kicked out of the Congress in 1999. Pawar established the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the same year. He said in his memoirs that he was motivated to create NCP not just by Sonia Gandhi’s “foreign origin” but also by occasions in which he saw his choices overturned and the denial of the position of Congress Parliamentary Party leader. He was appointed agriculture minister in the UPA administration of Manmohan Singh in 2004. After the UPA’s victory in the 2009 general elections, he kept his position in the Union cabinet. From 1999 to 2014, the Maharashtra state government was ruled by an alliance between the NCP and the Congress for three consecutive terms. The BJP won 105 seats in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections. The BJP and the Shiv Sena won an alliance, and the Shiv Sena gained 56 seats. Even though the two allies had enough seats to form a government, they quarrelled over power-sharing, with the chief minister’s position serving as the main point of dispute. As a result, the Shiv Sena began talks with the Congress and NCP.
On November 12, the Centre imposed President’s Rule in Maharashtra without seeing any results at the time. Uddhav Thackeray was later named the new government’s leader by Sharad Pawar after the Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP began talks to create an alliance. Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, however, were surprised by the early-morning oath-taking ceremony on 23 November when then-Gov. Bhagat Singh Koshyari swore in Fadnavis as the CM and Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM. Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as the chief minister following the three-day ministry. Pawar, who was instrumental in Thackeray’s election as CM, has declared that he will be available to NCP members as an elder to help them rather than as the party’s leader. Sharad Pawar is still a Rajya Sabha member.
On April 19, NCP leader and Sharad Pawar’s daughter predicted two political quakes within 15 days. On the thirteenth day following Sule’s statements, Sharad Pawar announced his resignation as the leader of the party he founded 20 years ago. What is the second earthquake to which she alludes? Supriya Sule, the head of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), forecast two political earthquakes in the next 15 days, one in New Delhi and the other in Maharashtra. On May 2, which is the thirteenth day after Supriya Sule’s forecast, the first earthquake was already felt. Tuesday marked the end of the Nationalist Congress Party’s 24-year presidency under the leadership of seasoned politician Sharad Pawar. Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule. She is also a member of the Lok Sabha representing Sharad Pawar’s former district, Baramati.
According to the sources, prominent figures like Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Chagan Bhujbal, and Dhananjay Munde supported Ajit Pawar’s goals. Before the Supreme Court was scheduled to rule on the request for the disqualification of 16 lawmakers who raised a banner of revolt to topple the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government, rumours began to circulate. Eknath Shinde, who oversaw the uprising, later teamed up with the BJP to establish the government. Political analysts predict that the BJP and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will need the support of Ajit Pawar and his MPs if a decision is made against Shinde’s Sena. Days before his resignation as party leader, Sharad Pawar addressed the party’s youth section and made a cryptic comment. Sharad Pawar had made a statement that now clarifies his choice: “Someone told me that roti had to be turned at the proper moment. It turns bitter if not turned. Ajit Pawar’s next action was widely believed to be hinted at by Sharad Pawar’s enigmatic remark. In response to Sharad Pawar’s cryptic remark, Ajit Pawar stated that the NCP has a habit of introducing fresh faces. Following Sharad Pawar’s resignation announcement on Tuesday, Ajit Pawar declared that a committee had been established to elect the party’s new leader. He affirmed that the committee’s members are “people within the NCP family, be it myself or be it, Supriya Sule.”
On April 18, the day before Supriya Sule made her comments on the earthquake, sources told India Today that Ajit Pawar had the support of lawmakers. According to the sources, the MLAs were eager to join the Maharashtra alliance because it would provide them with a break from federal agencies given that numerous opposition leaders, including Ajit Pawar and his family, Praful Patel, and Hasan Mushreef, are under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate. However, unlike Shinde who split the Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar lacked the guts to do the same with the NCP. Several MLAs also believed that nothing would be successful without Sharad Pawar’s support. Perhaps Ajit Pawar was also afraid. His previous liaison with the BJP, which lacked Sharad Pawar’s backing, had resulted in grief. However, Sharad Pawar might have believed that this time was the right one to “turn the roti”. The political landscape right now is rife with opportunity. With Sharad Pawar’s resignation occurring on the thirteenth day following Supriya Sule’s remark, rumours about what may transpire in Delhi over the next few days are growing.
While people predict that Ajit Pawar will have to go through what Raj Thackrey went through a few years back, the plot could be different. The Pawars don’t let emotions come in the way of business. They can do anything in the game of power. Balasaheb Thackery was a very strong but emotional human. Sharad Pawar has kept his emotions, expressions and his reality undercover for all his life to be unpredictable and secretive. With the experience he has, what he has in mind, only he knows. Eventually, Pawar dismantled Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena which he wanted to do long back. Balasaheb safeguarded his party for long but finally, Pawar won. He had planted his staff in the party a few decades back who reports to him even now. Isn’t it an intelligent move to employ your staff to work for your rival who in turn will create chaos in the rival’s camp? Some great people in politics are like that snake on the “99 ” no of the snakes and ladders board which takes you directly too many steps back and you have to almost restart the game. We can only hope that Uddhav Thackeray realised that he was winning the game but he took the wrong ladder and was bitten by a snake on the final stage of the game. May the Silent Killer of Maharashtra politics have a healthy, peaceful and safe life in future after his current decision to retire as a party head. We all know he has suffered a lot due to his health and he deserves to rest and have a good time for himself at this age. Without his involvement, the Snakes & Ladders of Maharashtra will seem less interesting. But we cannot assume that he won’t control the snakes on the board even when he is in his hibernation. Best wishes to his new journey and the new journey of Maharashtra Politics.
