Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, Devendra Fadnavis
Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 is yet to be announced, but the political check-mate game has already begun. Sharad Pawar, the Maratha satrap of state politics, is making a political move to kill two birds with one stone. By inducting BJP veteran Samarjit Singh Ghatge into his party, Sharad Pawar has written a script to jolt not only Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis but Ajit Pawar as well. In this way, Sharad Pawar has made a strategy to defeat Mahayutti with the help of BJP.
Samarjit Singh Ghatge on Tuesday quit BJP and joined Sharad Pawar’s NCP(S). Sharad Pawar has also announced that Ajit Pawar’s close aide and Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Hasan Musharraf will contest assembly elections from Kolhapur’s Kagal seat. Sharad Pawar not only talked about giving ticket to Ghatge but also hinted to make him a minister if the government is formed. Ghatge has thus increased the difficulties for Ajit Pawar and his close minister Hasan Mushrif.
Why did Samarjit Ghatge leave BJP?
Even after much persuasion and reassurance from Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Samarjit Singh Ghatge left the BJP as the Kagal seat went to Ajit Pawar’s NCP. Veteran NCP leader Hasan Mushrif has been elected as MLA from here for five consecutive times. In such a situation NCP has to get this seat at any cost and the next seat will not go to BJP at any cost. In such a situation, Ghatge was being offered MLC by the party, but he did not agree.
Samarjit Singh Ghatge wanted to contest assembly elections from Kagal seat at any cost. Seeing the possibility of not getting ticket from BJP, he has joined Sharad Pawar’s party. There are about two dozen assembly seats across Maharashtra where BJP leader Ajith is contesting a ticket against a candidate from the group, as he contested strongly in 2019.
BJP leaders are not confident of getting ticket due to Ajit Pawar’s change in political affiliation. There are many BJP leaders like Samarjit Singh Ghatge, whose seats are seen slipping away. In such a situation, he has started changing parties for his political position.
The calculations of several leaders’ meetings were disrupted.
Samarjit Singh Ghatge is not the only Maratha leader who sees his political future secure with Sharad Pawar’s party rather than the BJP, but the list of BJP leaders is long. They include Ajit Group’s Ramraj Naik Nimbalkar, who contested from Satara’s Fulton seat, and BJP leader Harshvardhan Patil, who contested from Indapur. Ranjit Singh Nimbalkar and Jayakumar Gor are not comfortable in the local politics of Solapur and Satara. Solapur BJP leaders Uttamrao Jankar and Prashant Paricharak are also seen moving towards Sharad Pawar’s faction in view of the changing equation in the district.
Due to the political equation of NCP with BJP in Maharashtra, the calculation of assembly seats of many leaders has gone wrong. The seats are Indapur, Udgir, Wai, Parli, Vadgaon Sherry, Mawal, Hadapsar, Ahmedpur, Amalner, Arjuni Morgaon, Aheri, Vikramgarh, Akole. In the 2019 assembly elections, 21 MLAs from the Ajit Pawar group won against the BJP. BJP and NCP workers have been fighting each other in electoral politics for a long time.
Sharad Pawar made a political move
Now that Ajit Pawar is in the government with the BJP and are going to contest the 2024 assembly elections together, many top BJP leaders are seeing their political future hanging in the balance. In such a situation, he has started searching for a political place. Seeing the urgency of the occasion, Sharad Pawar also took the angry BJP leaders with him and started working on a strategy to defeat both Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar politically. This may increase the tension for the BJP.
To gain votes and support from the dominant Maratha power in western Maharashtra, the BJP broke the NCP. The gimmick created by including Ajit Pawar with him seems to have been completely ruined now. Similarly, trouble has arisen for the BJP in the Marathwada region as well. In the Lok Sabha elections, Sharad Pawar along with Congress and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena managed to give BJP a heavy defeat. Pawar has shown his political skills by defeating Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, in western Maharashtra by contesting against the BJP. Now the same tactic has been started in assembly elections also.
