THE BJP'S BIG PAWAR PUNCH

WITH AN EYE ON THE 2024 GENERAL ELECTION, THE SAFFRON PARTY SPLITS THE NCP TO STRENGTHEN THE RULING COALITION, REDUCE EKNATH SHINDE'S CLOUT AND WEAKEN OPPOSITION FORMATIONS AT THE STATE AND NATIONAL LEVEL

- DHAVAL KULKARNI

AS political manoeuvres go, this was a masterstroke. Just a year after it broke the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and formed one of its own with Eknath Shinde’s band of 39 Shiv Sena MLAs, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has struck again, this time weaning away leader of the opposition Ajit Pawar and leaving the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in disarray.

On July 2, Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Maharashtra’s second deputy chief minister (the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis being the other) along with eight colleagues from the NCP. The move is aimed at shoring up support for the BJP, and comes at a time when Ajit’s uncle and NCP president Sharad Pawar is part of the efforts to forge a nationwide opposition against the saffron party for the 2024 general election. In a replay of Shinde’s rebellion, the rebel faction now claims to be the ‘official NCP’. The two groups have also moved the Election Commission of India (ECI) claiming to be the official party. The rival camp has also replaced Pawar Sr with Ajit as the national president. The outcome of this battle in the ECI will determine who gets the NCP’s official name and clock symbol. “This is a psychological victory for sure; now the fight is with ‘Congress plus’, rather than the MVA alliance,” says a top BJP leader in New Delhi who monitors Maharashtra closely.