Mumbai: The 2017 Mumbai civic polls were characterised by a high-pitched, acrimonious battle between two allies in the state who were rivals in the city—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the undivided Shiv Sena.
This time, a similar picture is playing out in the battle for Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, where two allies—the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)—are running acerbic campaigns against each other.
Back in 2017, behind the Shiv Sena’s aggressive posturing was a strategy to position itself as different and independent of the BJP, its ally in the state, and create options, if need be.
Nine years on, Ajit Pawar’s strategy seems to be no different, political observers say.
Since the past fortnight, the Maharashtra deputy chief minister has more or less been camped in the Pune district, focusing all his energy on every step of the electoral process in the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations—from brokering an alliance with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP to candidate selection, to being the face of the campaign in the two local bodies.
Pawar has hit out at the BJP, which defeated the then undivided NCP in 2017 in both the local bodies, every step of the way, making allegations of poor governance, neglect of the two cities, and graft. Moreover, in his various media interactions, he hasn’t denied the possibility of the two factions of the NCP permanently reuniting. Maintaining that he hasn’t thought about a permanent reunion, Pawar has cryptically said that the workers of both parties have been very happy ever since the alliance for Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad was forged, and that there are no permanent enemies in politics.
Political commentator Hemant Desai told ThePrint, “Looking at Ajit Pawar’s overall politics, he wants to expand his party the way Sharad Pawar did. Within the Mahayuti, he has competition from Eknath Shinde. And if he toes the line of the BJP entirely, then his party will have no distinct identity left.”
The Mahayuti comprises the BJP, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
“The Congress’s influence in major cities of Maharashtra has been waning, and if Uddhav Thackeray doesn’t get much success this time too, then there will be a giant space created in the Opposition, waiting to be filled,” Desai said, adding that there are definite parallels between what Uddhav Thackeray did from 2017 to 2019, and what Ajit Pawar is doing now.
That is, keeping all options open, he added.
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BJP vs NCP in Ajit Pawar’s power centre
Ajit Pawar first entered mainstream politics as Baramati MP in 1991, but soon stepped down to make way for his uncle, Sharad Pawar, through a byelection. The same year, he became the MLA of Baramati in the Pune district and has held the seat since then. As his prominence within the party as well as state politics grew, Pawar started actively focusing on Pimpri and Chinchwad. The NCP was formed in 1999 and established power in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation in 2002 under Ajit Pawar’s leadership.
In 2007, the leader also broke Congress’s Suresh Kalmadi’s iron grip over Pune and established the NCP’s rule in the Pune Municipal Corporation too. The party held on these two urban bastions till 2017, when the BJP wrested the two local bodies.
Since then, this is the first time the two local bodies are having an election. Ajit Pawar is doing everything in his might to regain his two lost fortes, not just because they are lost strongholds, but also because having his party rule two major cities will significantly bolster his position and ego within the ruling Mahayuti. The Pune district is to Ajit Pawar what Mumbai is to the Thackerays.
“This election is an exam for us. If we fail, the NCP position will really plummet in the political order. Ajit dada knows this and has pulled all stops to contest this election. He is hardly delegating. He is doing everything by himself and has probably addressed more than 50-60 public gatherings in the run up to polls,” a senior NCP leader from the Pune district told ThePrint.
In the last ten days while campaigning, deputy CM Pawar has hit out at the BJP a number of times, calling the party “power hungry”. He also said there was “open loot” by the party in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad and the aim was to “slay the demon of corruption”.
In his subsequent speeches, Ajit Pawar drew a line between local politics, state and national politics, saying that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the Centre and Maharashtra government are providing adequate funds for development works and no project has been kept pending. However, he said, local elections are fought on local issues and the performance of the local leadership matters.
BJP leaders too have hit back, with state BJP chief Ravindra Chavan saying the party regrets its alliance with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and that he had warned against it. Later, state BJP minister Ashish Shelar also needled Ajit Pawar by quoting Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and saying the BJP’s alliance partners should also show reverence to him. Ajit Pawar’s NCP responded by reiterating its commitment to the Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar ideology (Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, Jyotirao Phule and Dr B.R. Ambedkar).
In Mumbai too, where the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has little presence, Pawar entrusted the party’s campaign in the city to former MLA Nawab Malik, knowing fully well that the BJP was opposed to Malik and had ruled out an alliance with the NCP in Mumbai if Malik was in charge.
A second leader from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, who did not wish to be named, said, “The truth is that Ajit Pawar has not been able to fulfil the assurances that he had given his leaders when we broke away from the Sharad Pawar-led party in 2023. He had talked about ministerships, chairmanships of corporations. But, it was not in his hands. It is ultimately the BJP and CM Devendra Fadnavis who calls the shots for everything.”
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Talks of NCP reunion on the cards
For the most part of the campaign in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, it was just Ajit Pawar moving from ward to ward, meeting voters and making speeches. The senior leaders of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP were conspicuous in their absence from the campaign until late last week when Rohit Pawar, MLA from Karjat Jamkhed from the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, shared stage with Ajit Pawar. A day later, Baramati MP Supriya Sule, Ajit Pawar’s cousin and Sharad Pawar’s daughter, joined Ajit Pawar along with other leaders of both parties in releasing the joint manifesto of the two NCPs for Pune.
Rohit Pawar, Ajit Pawar’s nephew, explained that he was caught up in the various processes ahead of the election to the Maharashtra Cricket Association that the Bombay High Court has now put on hold.
Campaigning in Pimpri Chinchwad, Rohit Pawar hailed his uncle Ajit as “Rocky bhai from KGF” who is taking on two “garudas”, in a veiled taunt at the two local BJP MLAs—Mahesh Landge and Shankar Jagtap. ‘Rocky bhai’ is the film protagonist while ‘Garuda’ is the villain.
In the campaign of the two NCPs in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, Ajit Pawar is the undisputed protagonist and the face of the alliance, and leaders and observers say, in case of a reunion too, it’s unlikely to be very different.
Party leaders say a reunion will help Ajit Pawar strengthen his NCP nationally as the party will get the eight Lok Sabha MPs that the Sharad Pawar-led NCP had gotten elected in the 2024 parliamentary polls.
Moreover, Sharad Pawar’s Rajya Sabha term ends in April this year, and a renomination for his party would be easy if the two NCPs join forces.
There are still a lot of ifs and buts, and as of now, any indications by Ajit Pawar of the two NCPs reuniting are nothing more than posturing.
“Ajit Pawar is making statements indicating a possible patch-up between the two NCPs only for the sake of elections. If the two factions do come together, there is lack of clarity on whether Ajit Pawar will leave the Mahayuti or Sharad Pawar will join the National Democratic Alliance,” political analyst Pratap Asbe, who has known the Pawar family closely, told ThePrint.
“Sharad Pawar will not actively be an ally in the NDA, and barring the Zilla Parishad polls, with the next election being only in 2029, Ajit Pawar will not give up power and step out of Mahayuti. What’s happening now is just political posturing,” he added.
The undivided Shiv Sena used the options it created for itself in 2017. What Ajit Pawar will do, remains to be seen.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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