Ajit Pawar's Faustian Pact With Saffron

The NCP has always held on to its secular ideals while within the Mahayuti, but the proximity now imperils its political base

- Dhaval S. Kulkarni

AJIT PAWAR'S NCP SWIMS with the Mahayuti, but with a presumed teflon coating: it kept a distinct aloofness from the majoritarianism of its senior ally, the BJP. But this complex game is now threatening to jeopardise its social and political base. Chafing at the nub of this perceived incongruence was a photo tweeted lately by the BJP's star MP Kangana Ranaut: it showed Ajit's wife Sunetra Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP, attending a meeting of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the RSS women's wing.

The flutter it caused in Maharashtra was to be expected. Rohit Pawar, Ajit's nephew and an MLA of the rival NCP(SCP), promptly accused his uncle of "double standards", for claiming to be of "progressive" stock while consorting with the saffron brotherhood. They were under pressure to capitulate fully, Rohit added for good measure. Sources even say the recent controversy over Ajit's talking down to a lady IPS officer in an illegal sand mining case in Solapur-caught in a viral video-is being fanned by the BJP to corner him.