STAYING PAWAR

DESPITE PAWAR'S SHOW OF STRENGTH, THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM HAVE NOT DISAPPEARED

- Dhaval Kulkarni

Sharad Pawar is a political cat with far more than nine lives. His withdrawal of resignation on May 5 as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) may be seen by many as only a temporary truce within the party, but with that denouement, Pawar has shown who's the boss. His surprise announcement of retirement from the helm of the NCP had come only on May 2. That effectively put an unbridgeable moat around the fortress amid reports that a faction led by Ajit Pawar, his nephew and leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, was in talks with the BJP. NCP leaders and workers went into an emotional three-day protest pleading for the return of the party patriarch. And when he did come full circle, it had ring-fenced the NCP.

However, despite Pawar's show of strength, the elephants in the room continue to linger. Has Ajit shelved any plans to align with the BJP or only kept them on the back burner for now? Though Ajit outright denies any covert talks, senior BJP leader and Union minister Narayan Rane has said Ajit was on the "seemaresha" (border) of the BJP. Rane claims even the NCP leaders imploring Pawar to take back his resignation were trying to join the BJP.