Mumbai: Within a day of the funeral of late Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, it was apparent that the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were not on the same page with regards to their possible merger. One was vocally for it, and the other visibly circumspect.
At the time, two players in the game were yet to open their cards: NCP founder Sharad Pawar who confirmed there had been talks of a merger; and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis who dismissed the possibility.
The cards have since been played and the game has become as much about a power play between the octogenarian and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, as between the two factions of the NCP. As a result, Sharad Pawar, who retreated to the wings for a while, has resurged, once again taking centre stage, addressing press conferences, going on site visits, and taking a hard line against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
On Wednesday, speaking to reporters in Baramati, Pawar senior snubbed Fadnavis, saying, “Devendra Fadnavis was nowhere in the entire discussion, so he doesn’t have any right to speak about it. Ajit dada and Jayant Patil were having this discussion.”
By criticising the Union Budget and raising concerns over the impact of the India-US trade deal on Indian farmers, the former Union minister also asserted that despite prior talks of a merger, he remains firm in his opposition to the BJP-led NDA government.
Sharad Pawar’s questions over the trade deal come a day after Praful Patel, national working president of the NCP, felicitated Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament for the successful signing of the trade deal.
On the Union Budget for FY 2026-27, presented on 1 February, Pawar senior said, “There were expectations that this budget will have certain steps that will speed up the country’s development.”
Political commentator Hemant Desai told ThePrint that Sharad Pawar’s comments show he has taken a hard line in his opposition to the NDA. “Sharad Pawar raising questions on the trade deal is in sharp contrast to Praful Patel’s felicitation of PM Modi. It’s his attempt to show that merger or not, he is firmly in the space of the Opposition and will not toe the BJP’s line.”
Political analysts also said the BJP, which has managed to marginalise the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) in successive polls following the split in the NCP, does not want to risk power slipping back into the hands of senior Pawar amid a leadership vacuum post Ajit Pawar’s death.
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Baramati’s patriarch
Over the past few months, Sharad Pawar, who has also been battling some health issues, was not seen on public political platforms too often. He stayed away from campaigning for the civic polls, first to municipal councils in December and then to municipal corporations across the state in January. There were also talks about senior Pawar perhaps stepping away from public life with his Rajya Sabha term scheduled to end in April.
On Wednesday, as news about Ajit Pawar’s sudden death in a plane crash at Baramati spread, the town poured out on the streets to pay tribute to him. NCP loyalists made their way from all over Maharashtra to attend his funeral Thursday at the Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati.
The one common grief sounded across the town was that Baramati had been orphaned. Ajit Pawar had been representing Baramati as an MLA since 1991. Even in the undivided NCP, Pawar senior had handed over the responsibility of Baramati to his nephew while he focused on national politics.
On Friday, a day after the funeral, Sharad Pawar gave a quiet but clear message that as long as the 84-year-old Pawar family patriarch was around, Baramati was no orphan. He went on a field visit to inspect the Nira river in Baramati, raising concerns about the increasing pollution levels and speaking to locals about it.
On Saturday, he spoke to reporters in Baramati, saying, “I will do whatever is required to inspire the new generation and to fill the loss that Ajit Pawar’s death has created.”
Sharad Pawar wants to show people that he is still active, political commentator Abhay Deshpande said. “He wants to show that he is still capable of leading the party. This is his message even to those on the side of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.”
Also Read: Ajit Pawar: Brash, tireless, ambitious, the ‘Dada’ from Baramati
Consolidating hold on NCP’s traditional base
An NCP leader who did not wish to be named said Sharad Pawar is deeply disturbed by Ajit Pawar’s death. “He has by and large stayed in Baramati itself after the incident. He didn’t go for the Union Budget to Delhi. He is very hurt, but wants to rise to the occasion to fill the vacuum caused by Ajit dada’s death, and show party workers the way.”
Pawar, who has often been known to keenly observe and give his perspectives on issues of national importance, expressed concern over how the India-US trade deal might impact Indian farmers.
“The details of the new trade deal between India and US will come out in one or two days after which it will be appropriate to talk about it at length. But, right now, whatever has been declared by the US to the public, it seems there is a provision for them to export in the agriculture sector,” the former Union agriculture minister said.
Adding, “This is concerning. US is an economic superpower. If they start exporting important produce to other countries, it will have a detrimental effect on the domestic markets of those countries. I hope that there is no adverse effect on India’s agriculture sector.”
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in a press conference Tuesday said India’s sensitive agriculture and dairy sectors have been protected. US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, however, said the trade deal will enable more exports of American farm products into India’s market. The details are still unclear.
Political commentator Desai said, “Sharad Pawar has been agriculture minister and his party mainly has a rural base of farmers, including dairy farmers. This is a stance that is typical of the original NCP, one that even Ajit Pawar would have taken prior to the split in the party.”
Desai added that many leaders from the Sharad Pawar-led faction, having been out of power for far too long, are keen on the merger and joining the Mahayuti. But at the same time, several of them are Sharad Pawar loyalists first, and will eventually take their cue from him.
What’s at stake for BJP
On Sunday, Fadnavis raised questions over the legitimacy of the merger talks between the two NCP factions. He said Ajit Pawar’s NCP is an integral part of the Mahayuti, and if there were such talks and they had indeed reached a final phase, the BJP would have known about it.
“Under Ajit Pawar’s leadership, the BJP perhaps didn’t mind if the two NCPs reunited, because there was some assurance of the party being with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). But, if the leadership is with Sharad Pawar, then the BJP doesn’t know anymore. Even if they are part of the NDA now, a reunited NCP under Sharad Pawar could be a prospective opposition in 2029,” said political commentator Abhay Deshpande.
Even when Ajit Pawar was around, BJP leaders were often critical of the party’s alliance with the NCP. After the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP ended up with a drop in its seats from 303 to 240, an article in Organiser, the mouthpiece of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), criticised the BJP for forging an alliance with the NCP, setting off a war of words between leaders of the two parties in Maharashtra.
This year, amid hectic, aggressive campaigning for the municipal corporation polls across Maharashtra, when Ajit Pawar had raised the pitch against the BJP, calling out the party for alleged corruption in the Pune district, BJP Maharashtra president Ravindra Chavan said he had privately warned Fadnavis before allying with Ajit Pawar’s NCP.
An MLA from the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP who did not wish to be named said that with Ajit Pawar’s death, the party has been significantly weakened. “It is no longer the force that it used to be when Ajit dada was around. This is advantageous to the BJP. The BJP will not want a stronger NCP under another Pawar, and that too, Sharad Pawar.”
Vishwas Pathak, a Maharashtra BJP spokesperson, told ThePrint that the discussion about a merger being in the offing was always one-sided, with no leader from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP confirming it.
“When a question was posed to CM Fadnavis, he said Ajit Pawar, being part of Mahayuti, would have spoken to him or BJP. He also said that it is a matter between the two parties. What Sharad Pawar said today [about how Fadnavis should refrain from commenting on it as he was not involved] seems to be completely out of frustration,” Pathak said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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