Rama Krishna Sangem
NCP president and veteran Maharashtra former chief minister Sharad Pawar has ended suspense over his only daughter and MP Supriya Sule taking over the party leadership.
Pawar appointed her along with former union minister Praful Patel as NCP working president June 10, Saturday. This cleared the air over who would succeed him as NCP leader in the coming years – it is Supriya. Though Patel is another working president of NCP, he will play No 2 to her.
An important feature of these appointments is sidelining of Sharad Pawar’s nephew and former Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who all these years aspired to be No 2 in the party. Now that he is not the first 3 positions of peckng order in the party – after Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule and Prfaful Patel – Ajit will have to either adjust to the new reality or take his decision on his political future.
Announcement in presence of Ajit
Sharad Pawar on Saturday announced Supriya Sule and Praful Patel working presidents of the Nationalist Congress Party. Pawar made the announcement at the 25th anniversary of the party, founded by him and P A Sangma in 1999. The announcement was made in presence of Ajit Pawar, a key player in NCP. Pawar had last month offered to resign from the presidency of the party which was followed by fervent remonstrations from the party members as well as other political leaders.
An NCP panel formed to deliberate on Pawar’s offer had on May 5 rejected his resignation and urged him to continue as the party president.
Now the developments are expected to move at their own pace and space in Maharashtra politics. Ajit Pawar and some of his close associates in NCP are of the view that there is no future for them in Maha Vikas Aghadi – a coalition of NCP, Shiv Sene – Udhhav Thackeray group and Congress. They wold like to join hands with BJP which is desperately looking for strong allies other than Shiv Sena- CM Eknath Shinde group.
Ajit Pawar might take some time to come to grips with Supriya Sule’s elevation in NCP and make moves to chart out his own course of action. Some major political developments are sure to happen in Maharashtra in the coming months.
