Maharashtra | A heavy mantle of responsibility

Two lines on a messy political map were about to converge when they hit an air pocket on the foggy morning of January 28—as a Learjet, carrying deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar (66), missed the tabletop airstrip in his native Baramati and crashed in an open field. But shock and grief soon fragmented into more complex emotions for the Pawar family. For, the air of tragedy took no time to be pierced by some sharp realpolitik.

A powerful caucus in Ajit’s party had moved in swiftly, giving Maharashtra a new deputy CM: Ajit’s widow Sunetra. Sombre, sheathed in a white shawl, the 62-year-old took her oath on January 31. A step-sister of political veteran Padamsinh Bajirao Patil, and married to one of the state’s most dynamic leaders for 41 years, she has had a long ringside view of the game but now faces a challenging task in only her second year in formal politics.

Especially because it was a pre-emptive coup of sorts. What it did is stall a reunion of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), undoing Ajit’s final moves. After a bitter estrangement of over two years, Ajit and his uncle, former Union minister Sharad Pawar, were poised to shake hands. That prospective event would have shifted the state’s very tectonic plates and resonated much further afield. After all, an Opposition stalwart would have entered the BJP’s axis of influence, dealing a body blow to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and denting the morale of the INDIA bloc nationally.

But there was a narrower set of implications that didn’t suit a set of satraps. In the vacuum after Ajit’s demise, many of Ajit’s legislators could have sought a reassuring leadership figure in Pawar Sr, enabling his camp to call the shots within a reunited NCP. So the caucus thought it best to nip the idea in the bud by arranging for Sunetra’s coronation.

THE SPLITTIST VIEW

How close to fruition was the reunion? Versions differ. Sharad Pawar, visibly vexed at the turn of events, told reporters that the entente had been finalised over four months of talks, and a formal merger was to be announced on February 12, a date decided by Ajit. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis counters that: if the talks had reached the final stage, he says, Ajit would have informed the BJP. Still, the attempts to find a workable relationship were quite public. The two NCPs had even contested the local body elections in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad in alliance, though unsuccessfully.

Anyway, the deal is off, at least for now, Pawar hinted, revealing he was kept in the dark about Sunetra being chosen as deputy CM. That matches the intent of Ajit’s NCP, of which Sunetra might be named president. That front too saw a bit of commotion after Union minister Piyush Goyal said Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel would take the post. Patel quickly scotched the idea, but the episode served to put the spotlight on a key actor in the drama.

Seen as among the moving forces behind the 2023 NCP split, it’s Patel—along with Sunil Tatkare, Chhagan Bhujbal and Dhananjay Munde—who is said to have starred in the present script too. An NCP leader, counted in the anti-reunion camp, told india today that the idea behind elevating Sunetra is to tap into “public sympathy” and firm up a continued viability for the NCP as a standalone entity.

It won’t be easy. The swearing-in raised eyebrows, and rival parties did not pull their punches: Sanjay Shirsat, social justice minister from the Shinde Shiv Sena, questioned the haste on display while the state was still in mourning. Analysts see the BJP’s hand in the merger being deferred. The ostensible logic: it may contest the 2029 assembly poll alone, and may not want to strengthen a prospective rival. A Congress leader said the BJP would lord it over the NCP, even replace the old guard in the cabinet. Others even predict the party’s eventual demise. The rivalry within the Pawar clan is a strong subplot here. In her debut political foray, Sunetra was defeated by Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll from Baramati. “The personal bitterness persists,” says a Shinde Sena source.

But there’s a deeper undertow. If Ajit pursued a reunion in the face of family opposition, insiders say, it’s because he was impelled by the fear that the BJP would gradually eat into the space of its allies. Ideologically, he had held out against Hindutva, in sync with the anti-Brahminical vein of his Maratha base. The NCP’s existential fears do not die with him.