Twenty-four years ago, in June 1999, Sharad Pawar formed the Nationalist Congress Party, along with his expelled colleagues from the Congress. They had a bone to pick with the fact that Sonia Gandhi, born in Italy, was the president of the party and might have become the Prime Minister of India if the party had won an electoral majority. However, the foreign-origin issue went right out into Mumbai’s balmy air only four months later when Pawar allied with the Congress to form the state government in Maharashtra. It is important to remember this now as the party seemingly split into two and Ajit Pawar led a faction last Sunday to join forces with the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis or the Shiv Sena-BJP government.
There’s more. In 2014, when the two saffron parties parted ways before the state assembly elections and the BJP fell just short of a majority, Sharad Pawar had quickly but quietly offered NCP’s support to Fadnavis. In 2019, Ajit Pawar had gone a step ahead to take the oath of office with Fadnavis while Pawar was attempting an alliance of his party with the Shiv Sena and Congress; it is likely that Pawar knew. And, it must be remembered that, despite his firm stand on secularism, he has hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his hometown Baramati with pomp and splendour. Then, there are the coups or near-coups he sprang in the 1970s and 80s.