{"id":479330,"date":"2023-07-03T20:23:09","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T14:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=479330"},"modified":"2023-07-03T20:23:18","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T14:53:18","slug":"ajit-pawar-sharad-pawar-eknath-shinde-devendra-fadnavis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/politics\/ajit-pawar-sharad-pawar-eknath-shinde-devendra-fadnavis\/","title":{"rendered":"Ajit Pawar game: Was Sharad Pawar really in the dark?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ajit Pawar\u2019s about-turn has turned the politics of Maharashtra and the country since the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has been central in the Opposition build-up for Lok Sabha 2024. The 63-year-old NCP leader, once considered NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar\u2019s political heir, has now set off on his own political path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ajit Pawar’s switching sides did not come as a surprise to many as it was expected for some time now but making his way straight to Raj Bhavan as just an MLA and stepping out as Deputy Chief Minister on a Sunday afternoon with no political buzz or resort drama startled many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The reason behind the move was ascribed to him being meted poor treatment within the NCP, with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde saying the same after the swearing-in yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion within political circles was on the lines of saying \u2018Bhanja, Sharad Pawar ko mama bana gaya\u2019 meaning Ajit ditched uncle Pawar Sr, the one who is credited with shaping the nephew\u2019s political career over the years. But is it really so, or is it a new game of tactics put to play chalked out by Sharad Pawar? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With his longevity of over 60 years in politics, the 84-year-old Sharad Pawar, credited as an astute political mind in the country, it is assumed by many that is a ploy of his to act like a dormant player on camera but be the kinetic force inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speculation is rife that with an eye on the 2024 polls, Sharad Pawar has come to an understanding with the BJP top brass, which is eager for a third term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NCP patron may have sent 2019 dawn drama star Ajit to join the ruling alliance while he defines his role staying in the Opposition. A honest attempt to win even if it is heads or tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Sharad Pawar key in stitching the 2024 Opposition alliance, analysts say he can help the BJP by sowing disaffection among the non-BJP alliance forming with the Congress in it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pawar camp coup would also shield his party and party leaders facing corruption charges for a long time, including Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal and Praful Patel, Pawar Senior\u2019s former right-hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The scams made their way back into the headlines after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the NCP leaders, for what he called, a Rs 70,000 crore corruption case at a rally in Bhopal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sequence of Sunday’s events begin with a meeting at Devgiri, Ajit Pawar\u2019s official residence in Mumbai, which had Sharad Pawar\u2019s daughter and NCP working president Supriya Sule in it, reports said Sule left the meeting abruptly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later responding to a question about the meeting, Pawar Senior, who was in his Pune residence, said he had no information regarding it, saying must have been a usual meeting convened by Ajit as the Leader of Opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While reports claimed, Ajit Pawar had already resigned from the Opposition post on Friday, it is perplexing for most to understand how a micro-managing boss like Pawar missed that development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics also pointed to Sharad Pawar\u2019s body language after the oath-taking ceremony. He was captured on camera unworried nor did he make any direct attack on the nephew\u2019s move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ajit Pawar had pulled a similar stunt some 3.5 years back on November 23, 2019, after Uddhav Thackeray snapped ties with the BJP. Ajit Pawar was sworn in Deputy CM in the hush of the morning hours with 35 MLAs under Fadnavis as CM, a government that lasted for less than 80 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back then, it was seen as a coup of Sharad Pawar, who was buying time to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Shiv Sena (then headed by Uddhav Thackeray), the NCP, and the Congress, just to form the alliance government with Thackeray as Chief Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After repeated denials for years, last week, Sharad Pawar had admitted to the googly he had thrown in 2019. A senior NCP leader said with the 2024 elections on their head, the same pattern is being followed, the acceptance for which would come later from the Baramati strongman depending on which way the ball turns.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reason behind the move was ascribed to him being meted poor treatment within the NCP, with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde saying the same after the swearing-in yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":479359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[66706,134514,67964,611,5455],"yst_prominent_words":[23492,39585,66702,83484,14114,3811,3813,4560,3688,63096,73929,3893,65774,68802,4102,15707,39464,67689,39081],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2023\/07\/03202108\/Untitled-design-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479330"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=479330"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=479330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}