Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is currently receiving criticism from all the sides. His trusted associates across Maharashtra have been leaving him to join his uncle, while he had been receiving criticism from leaders in the Mahayuti coalition. The RSS cadres too had not hidden their discomfort with him. On this backdrop, it will be interesting to see whether he is able to prove his mantle and emerge unconquerable as his name suggests.
Former minister and BJP leader from Solapur Lakshman Dhoble left the party on Friday to join the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) under Sharad Pawar. While leaving the BJP he blamed Ajit Pawar for the troubles he had been creating. In Aurangabad, the party had to expel MLC Satish Chavan for anti-party activists. News stories regarding some or the other leader in his home district Pune leaving his side and joining his uncle’s party have become a daily routine over past month or so. Yet, ‘Dada’ (elder brother) as he is often referred to as by his followers, is undeterred and following the path he had chosen for himself over a year ago.
“All those leaving me are doing so because they know that they won’t get to contest from our party. They stand a better chance on the other side because there they have a vacuum of over 40 seats since we left them,” he says convincingly when asked about those leaving him. On rest of the criticism, he is sure that his unwavering dedication to work shall shut the mouths of all his critics.
He had to keep low due to bad performance in the Lok Sabha election. After the elections he was openly criticized even by an ally and fellow deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who attributed the alliance’s poor performance to the NCP’s “inability” to convert support into votes for its allies. The issue is one fourth of the undivided NCP’s votes came from the minorities, which did not go the Mahayuti candidates during Lok Sabha polls.
But, this shortcoming is likely to be the best tool for him in the assembly election, as he is being perceived as the only Mahayuti leader who has an ability to attract Muslim votes. He is even nurturing his image accordingly and openly saying in advertisements that he hasn’t shed his ‘secular’ ideology even though he has joined the BJP for its development agenda.
Ajit Pawar is restless and ambitious. At a recent program, he spoke out his desire to become Chief Minister openly. He also nurtures a deep sense of resentment within, for not getting a chance to become the Chief Minister of the state in spite of swearing in for five times as Deputy Chief Minister in span of past two decades. His current politics, since past year and a half, when he broke away from his uncle Sharad Pawar, has been driven by this deep resentment.
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