Mumbai: Smarting from the setback in the Baramati prestige fight, the Ajit Pawar’s NCP is now focussing on the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. The mood among his followers is aggressive given that they were already piqued with the raw deal they got in the Mahayuti’s Lok Sabha seat-sharing agreement.
The Ajit Pawar camp is demanding at least 80-90 seats and many functionaries that ThePrint spoke to said that the demand is still valid. “Why should we not demand? We contested 4 and won 1, BJP contested 28 and won only 9. So they cannot alone call shots,” said a leader from NCP-Ajit Pawar camp.
NCP functionaries are accusing the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena of not working hard for their candidates. According to them, the loss in Baramati is a clear indicator because the votes of BJP did not get transferred for Sunetra Pawar.
Political analyst Nitin Birmal, however, told ThePrint that despite the loss, it is too premature to write off Ajit Pawar. Assembly elections are Pawar’s strength, he added.
“There still is one more chance for Pawar at the assembly elections. The assembly constituencies are smaller comparatively and here he has candidates who can deliver,” Birmal said.
Also Read: With Sharad Pawar as master strategist, how MVA dealt blow to BJP in crucial western Maharashtra
Loopholes & introspection
NCP functionaries said that they need to analyse the results and how and where things could be improved.
“There are certain loopholes clearly, which are evident from the results. We will have to sit down and analyse them,” a second functionary from the party said. “But I am confident that in the assembly elections, which is where our strength is, our performance will be much better.”
The Baramati loss has rankled the NCP. Of the six assembly seats under this parliamentary constituency, the assembly seat of Baramati is represented by Ajit Pawar in the Maharashtra assembly. Yet, Supriya Sule got more votes than Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra in the Lok Sabha fight. The sitting MP had a lead of 47,000 votes over Sunetra Pawar.
According to the voting data, Supriya got the lead in 5 out of the six assembly constituencies. It was only in Khadakwasala where she trailed behind by 20,000 votes. The leads in other constituencies offset the Khadakwasala result. Supriya Sule went on to win by a margin of 1,58,333 votes
“If we cannot get a lead in Baramati, it is definitely a concern. Also, Vijay Shivtare of Eknath Shinde party and BJP MLAs also apparently didn’t help us,” said the second functionary from the party.
On Wednesday, NCP MLC Amol Mitkari also blamed the allies for not cooperating with the party candidate. “Whatever votes we got (in Baramati) was due to Ajit Pawar’s individual efforts,” he told the media.
In a meeting held last week, senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal said that the party should press for 80-90 seats in the assembly as promised by the BJP.
“Yes, we currently have 54 MLAs in total so we need to atleast get those seats. Even BJP and Shinde will demand the current tally. So whatever else remains after that, it needs to be demanded equally in three parties. That is going to be our demand,” the NCP leader mentioned above said.
BJP’s strike rate is very dismal, he said. “So why will they not listen to us? They have no option.”
However, Birmal said that one possibility could be that BJP would think of going solo for assembly. The vote share of BJP is still there, and looking at the current status, the allies did not seem to have helped BJP get more seats, the political analyst said.
In fact, the image of having Ajit Pawar on their side has discouraged BJP cadre who believe that they are better off asking for votes on the Lotus symbol, according to him.
“So it could be possible that the Mahayuti might break and we could see a four-way fight. With these three and one from MVA considering MVA remains together. In that case, it would be difficult to predict who will benefit,” he said.
Exodus on the cards?
On the other hand, Sharad Pawar’s NCP had a stellar performance where it won 8 of the 10 Lok Sabha seats it contested.
After the results, Rohit Pawar of Sharad Pawar’s NCP told the media Wednesday that “around 18-19 MLAs are in touch with us. But whether we will take them back or not, our party head will decide.”
However, the NCP functionaries dismissed these claims even as 5 MLAs skipped the Thursday meeting convened by Ajit Pawar in the evening.
Prior to that meeting, the Maharashtra deputy chief minister met with his senior leaders on Thursday morning. Seven ministers, including Dhanajay Munde, Hassan Mushrif, Chhagan Bhujbal, Aditya Tatkare and other senior leaders, were present there.
After his meeting with MLAs got over in the late evening, Ajit Pawar briefed the media: “I take up the responsibility of the loss and nobody is responsible. I am surprised at Baramati’s loss.. People trust on us have gone down, but we will work very hard for the upcoming assembly elections to win back the trust.”
NCP MP and party state president Sunil Tatkare told media that they met to discuss further strategies and how to aggressively work for the upcoming assembly elections. “About MLAs going, is all rumours. This is being deliberately done to mislead us. But our MLAs trust Ajit Pawar and they won’t go anywhere,” said Tatkare
However, the first functionary mentioned above said that even if nobody will go right now, before the assembly elections, some might move around and explore other options. “But let’s wait and watch,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Bhujbal exhorts Ajit Pawar to claim 80-90 assembly seats. ‘We should get what they had promised’