Will Sharad Pawar be a challenge to Modi-Amit Shah at national level?

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Will Sharad Pawar be a challenge to Modi-Amit Shah at national level?

Earlier, it was Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad Yadav’s political stunt that stole the limelight in Bihar

Tuesday November 26, 2019 8:27 AM, Pradip Bhattacharya, ummid.com

Sharad Pawar vs Modi

After NCP Chief Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar went to BJP Camp, Sharad Pawar has been giving a repeated statement in the media that Ajit’s decision to align with the BJP was that of his nephew and the party does not endorse it. Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule has said the party and the family have been split? At the time of writing this piece, the game in Maharashtra (Kissa Kursi Ka) is wide open. Nobody is going to rely on SC verdict as Floor test is always the only mandatory for a government formation.

The only relief for Maharashtra state as a whole, if SC orders floor test as early because it will only then put an end to all kinds of the circus going between the number of parties in Maharashtra. Sooner the floor test is better, as it will show some sense of seriousness in the government formation. Who is the loser or winner, the Supreme Court has to leave it to the Legislative Assembly? While the floor test goes on, if BJP flounders on numbers, it could be NCP-Congress- Sena government and this could only herald trouble for NDA because a strong opposition will be forming a government!

Everyone in India is asking will Sharad Pawar be a kingmaker in the opposition politics now? With 50 years of experience within Indian politics, his success in Maharashtra’s poll in 2019 (Assembly) has made many analysts think this. His comeback with a huge success has even caught the attention of Home Minister Amit Shah or Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But it seems to us that the Centre has not learnt its lesson from its repeated mistakes. BJP which announced in early Saturday morning a split in NCP party, led by Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar, sent a shock wave to the veteran leader of NCP, his daughter Supriya Sule and the party cadres.

After the break-up in JD (Secular) and Congress in Karnataka, where BJP managed to tie the knot with 15 rebel MLAs left BJP to repeat the same formula in every state. Since 2014, BJP had not only just created a huge split in Congress in states like Goa, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, the same horse-trading was repeated with other parties such as Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP), J&K National Conference, PDP, in the respective states.

Will Sharad Pawar now stop such play of BJP and emerge a successful politician than even Modi or Shah in national politics. All eyes are open about how Sharad Pawar deals firmly with his party split and save the party image from downfall in the hands of Shah and Modi.

Even before the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election, none could imagine NCP chief Sharad Pawar would sweep the polls where ever he had staged a rally in remote corners of the Maharashtra region. Will then Sharad Pawar be able to lead the opposition face once again and prove Modi-Shah's popularity in danger?

Earlier, it was Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad Yadav’s political stunt that stole the limelight in Bihar. After JD(U) ’s exit (2013) from NDA before the 2014 election, Modi was however successful in embracing JD(U) in the BJP’s fold, throwing out RJD and Congress base from Bihar region.

With a very few veteran politicians who can lead now the country, prominent names come across our mind that includes Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik. Even BSP supremo Mayawati or SP leader Akhilesh Yadav did not manage to catch the eyeball after defeat in Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

Whatever it may be, Pawar’s rise in Maharashtra politics again might not enable BJP to throw out the opposition party flocking together to scale their pitch once again. With BJP sweeping the Lok Sabha election in 2019, it was believed that the opposition party will fade away, but NCP chief Sharad Pawar seems to have consolidated the face of opposition unity once again.

Can BJP's new plot with Ajit Pawar as a deputy CM I be seen as a desperate dream of the saffron party’s tie-up with NCP? Or BJP is stunned to see NCP-Sena-Congress government can never push forward their dream at all? Will then Sharad Pawar tie a knot of opposition parties only to defeat BJP? Time will tell that.

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