Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, 83, on Tuesday hinted at retirement as he said he may not contest any more elections after his Rajya Sabha term ends in 18 months.
The veteran politician – who set up the NCP in 1999 and is widely regarded as the ‘grand old man’ of Maharashtra politics – was speaking at his family stronghold of Baramati in western Maharashtra, which will see a Pawar vs Pawar contest in the November 20 Assembly election.
“I am not in power… and my tenure in the Rajya Sabha has one-and-a-half years left. (After that) I will not contest any election in the future. (I) will have to stop somewhere…” he said, thanking the voters of Baramati for making him an MP and MLA a staggering 14 times overall.
The potential close of a nearly six-decade-long political career comes as the NCP and its allies – the Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena group – contest this month’s election.
In that context, the fight for Baramati is being seen as a referendum on Sharad Pawar’s continuing influence over voters, since it sees his grandnephew, Yugendra Pawar, do battle against his nephew Ajit Pawar, whose led the rebellion last year that forced the NCP to split.
Ajit Pawar is a five-time MLA from Baramati but, in each of his earlier wins, he had the backing of his uncle’s party. This will be the first state poll in which he contests under his own banner.
The result of the election for the Baramati Lok Sabha seat – the people voted overwhelmingly for Sharad Pawar’s candidate – his daughter Supriya Sule – underlines Ajit Pawar’s task at hand.
In his comments on Baramati and the rebel nephew, Sharad Pawar seemed to play down the family vs family angle, declaring, “I have no grudge against him (Ajit Pawar) … he led you for nearly 30 years… ” but also pitching the message of a generational change in leadership.
“Now it is time for me to prepare a young (and) dynamic leadership… which can take over for the next 30 years,” Pawar senior said, appearing to underline Yugendra Pawar’s future position.
“I am not seeking your votes… you have always been magnanimous with all Pawar family members in this time…” the canny Sharad Pawar said, looking to not lose support from those who may be leaning towards his nephew, “But we have to look ahead now at the future.”
Speculation over Sharad Pawar’s final innings in electoral politics has been circulating for some time now, and was raked up again in January by nephew Ajit Pawar, who had fought against and forced a split of his uncle’s party, leading the rebels into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and a faction of the Shiv Sena that had earlier broken away from Uddhav Thackeray.
Back then Pawar junior hit out at Pawar senior for not sticking to a 2023 resolution to step down from the party’s top post. “Some people,” Ajit Pawar said, simply refused to retire.
“People should stop after reaching a certain age… but some are not ready… even after turning 80, this person (the reference to his uncle was clear) is not ready to retire,” he declared.
Sharad Pawar offered a typically pithy reply to his nephew’s jab.
“Na tired hu, na retired hu.” (I am neither tired nor retired),” he scoffed, echoing the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s remarks. “Who are they to tell me to retire? I can still work.”
In May last year – while the NCP was battling its internal crisis – Sharad Pawar announced his resignation as party boss. The announcement was unanimously rejected by top leaders.
“All of us want Sharad Pawar to continue… he should respect the feelings of lakhs of us, and he should continue,” Praful Patel, who has since joined the ranks of Ajit Pawar’s NCP, had said.
Days later Mr Pawar took back his resignation.
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