Hospitalisation is proving to be no constraint for NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar’s political manoeuvring. Admitted to a Mumbai hospital due to a chest infection, the veteran politician, who has survived cancer more than once, has kept Maharashtra’s political circles guessing over his next move from the bed at Breach Candy.
Pawar then announced unconditional support to the BJP government, saying he wanted to prevent Maharashtra from facing another election. Modi reportedly advised Pawar to take rest and leave everything to him and Supriya Sule, Pawar’s daughter. This statement is being construed as an indication of Pawar joining the BJP-led NDA at the Centre and the Mahayuti alliance at the state level, ditching the Congress-led INDIA bloc. However, after the Maharashtra Assembly election results that same year, he allied with the Congress and joined the government. At that point, Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin was no longer an obstacle for Pawar. Despite his party finishing third and receiving a mandate to sit in the opposition, he successfully brought the NCP into the state government. To achieve that, he had no hesitation in joining hands with his long-time political rival, the Shiv Sena, besides the Congress. The BJP and Shiv Sena had contested separately, and tensions between the two parties were high. The BJP, though the single-largest party, lacked the numbers needed to secure a majority. The following year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Pawars’ home turf of Baramati and publicly described Sharad Pawar as his political mentor. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress formed the government then, with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray sworn in as the chief minister and Ajit Pawar becoming his deputy. Sharad Pawar kept his distance. However, Pawar remarked he couldn’t take a call on the issue and it would be decided by the next-generation leaders like Supriya Sule.
His meeting with Praful Patel, a leader from the rival Ajit Pawar faction that took away the party name NCP after rebelling in 2023, has led to pointed speculation over the likelihood of a reunification. In 1999, Pawar quit the Congress and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), citing objections to Italy-born Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, he became a minister in the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, after Sonia Gandhi chose not to be PM in favour of Manmohan Singh. Pawar reinforced this political philosophy after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections. Earlier, during the 2014 Assembly elections, Pawar surprised many by helping the BJP. During the trust vote, his 41 MLAs walked out of the Assembly, reducing the effective majority mark and helping the BJP government survive. In 2017, the Modi government awarded Pawar the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour in India. Yet, Ajit went back to a BJP-led alliance in 2023, a year after the Shiv Sena imploded and the BJP formed a government with Eknath Shinde’s Sena. After the 2024 elections, Fadnavis became chief minister with Shinde and Ajit as deputies. who is deputy chief minister — 85-year-old Pawar softened his stand during an interview with an English daily last year While continuing to fight a legal battle over the official name of the party and the election symbol with his late nephew’s faction — now led by his wife Sunetra Pawar.
He said a section of his party’s leaders believe it should reunite with the NCP of Ajit Pawar.
A day earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, called Pawar, when he was initially in a hospital in Pune.
