THE PARTY IS SEEING AN INFLUX OF SENIOR LEADERS FROM WESTERN MAHARASHTRA AND MARATHWADA
Mumbai: A popular joke doing the rounds is that Sharad Pawar has been on a shopping spree of Western Maharashtra and Marathwada, picking up local strongmen and putting them into his kitty—the NCP (SP). Over the past few weeks, on the heels of the party’s sparkling show at the Lok Sabha polls and the possibility of a return to power after the Vidhan Sabha elections, politicians from different parties are jumping onto the senior Pawar’s bandwagon. Harshvardhan Patil, after a stint with the BJP, has returned to the fold and was immediately inducted into the party’s parliamentary committee. Other big names to swear allegiance to the NCP’s patriarch are Samarjeet Ghatge of Kagal, Ajit Gavhane, Naik, Laxman Dhoble, former guardian minister of Solapur, Ramesh Thorat from Daund and Rajendra Mhaske, a former BJP man from Beed.
More than 20 prominent politicians have joined the party in the past few weeks in the run-up to the Vidhan Sabha elections. “There is a two-way engagement with those who want to join the party. Over the course of the past few months, we have understood that we have to work twice as hard to replicate the success of the Lok Sabha elections. This requires a consolidation of all those voices who are speaking out against the current government. On the other side, scores of leaders are disillusioned, and have sought to leave parties that they have been part of. I am grateful they have chosen us, the NCP (SP) as their home today,” says Anish Gawande, national spokesperson, NCP (SP).
It’s no secret that senior leaders with a mass base have joined the party with an eye on a nomination. However, not all can be accommodated. The understanding, says Gawande, was clear. “Leaders are judged on merit and then given responsibilities. Every candidacy is dependent on electoral merit,” he says. The rule has been applied to those who have returned from the Ajit Pawar faction and also those who have come in from other parties with divergent and contrasting ideologies.
Political watchers, however, claim that this isn’t an election of sentiment or ideology. Another NCP (SP) leader who doesn’t want to be named, says that this election needs mass leaders who can get the voters out because these polls will be dependent only on the numbers. That’s the number one criterion. Apart from balancing the caste equations, which are on the boil with the ongoing Maratha reservation agitation. “We have to rely on mass leaders who can get the voters out,” he says.
Ideologies and affiliations don’t matter. They are knocking at Pawar’s door with hopes of getting a nomination for the elections or a promise of good prospects later. Many switched sides after realising that their chances of contesting from their original parties were slim, given the peculiar alliances that Maharashtra has recently seen. Samarjeet Ghatge, on realising that the BJP has had to relinquish its claim to the Kagal seat for the NCP’s Hasan Mushrif, switched to the NCP (SP) in a grand public gathering. BJP leader Ganesh Naik stays with the BJP while his son Sandeep, who was denied a nomination by the BJP from Belapur, returned to the NCP(SP).
The crossing over works well for both sides. While politicians get a chance to retain their hold over their constituencies by getting a shot at winning the polls, the party gets a leader with a strong bloc of grassroots workers.
The inflow has been carefully selected. Consolidate is the buzzword as the party is strengthening its base and force by inducting local leaders who can give the party a boost in various regions. Throughout its lifetime, the undivided NCP had western Maharashtra as its stronghold. But with the departure of sitting legislators, the NCP (SP) is now in the process of bringing in new people to retain its bastion of western Maharashtra and is also spreading its wings across Marathwada.
The party, however, dismisses claims of smart strategies to consolidate its voter base. “There is anger among the people given the agrarian crisis and the way this government is handling the matter,” says Gawande.
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