PAWAR'S LAST STAND TO SAVE LEGACY, DYNASTY

AR is fought by soldiers, but won by generals. Elections are fought on ideologies and won by gladiators. The unique Maharashtra Mahabharata between the Maha Vikas Agadi and the Maha Yuti is fought on the battlefield of opportunism, tergiversation, perfidious propaganda and political fratricide between the three dominant political parties.

- PRABHU CHAWLA

The main formations are the MVA comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) led by Uddhav Thackeray, and the Maha Yuti commanded by current CM Eknath Shinde with the BJP and Ajit Pawar's breakaway NCP. Whoever wins, the verdict will transcend the significance of parties to envelop two giants whose mark on the polity is indelible.

They are enemies by circumstance and friends through mutual respect.

The Maharashtra hostilities are a straight face-off between Sharad Pawar and Narendra Modi. It will be Pawar's last battle in all likelihood. And Modi's crucial test for the absolute validation of his charisma. Pawar must prove he remains the Mighty Maratha par excellence. Through a series of political machinations and collusion, he lost his party's name and symbol; but the masses are loyal to him. At every important public or party meeting, he occupies the centre-stage.

Betrayed by his own kin and trusted sycophants who were given plum posts, Pawar's vengeance is calculated to restore the clout of the NCP he founded 26 years ago. He is a wounded tiger snarling at destiny, ready to spring out of his cave. Hunters say there is nothing more dangerous than a wounded lion; in Pawar's case, he is not licking his wounds, but is strategising to give his enemies a licking and a kicking.

A Congressman by DNA and dynast by choice, he failed to groom effective successors in the hope that daughter Supriya Sule would be equal to the task. To ensure her survival sans his risk, he must bring the MVA back to power. He has proved his mass mojo by engineering the victory of 30 MVA Lok Sabha MPs in May. He is holding more public rallies and meetings in the past four weeks than he ever did before. He has kept the alliance together and minimised defections and rebellion within his ranks.