A KING WITHOUT THE KINGDOM NOW

Pawar seemed all reconciled to accept Sonia as his leader. However, on May 17, 1999 everyone in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet called to finalise candidates for Goa assembly polls was growing restless, dying to catch up with India's cricket World Cup opener in England.

- RASHEED KIDWAI

Family members and blood relatives staging a coup are not confined to the kings and queens of the past. In the vibrant parliamentary democracies too, bloodless yet devastating takeovers by the loved ones, causing misery and emptiness have been experienced by many. Veteran Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar has joined a league of Thackerays, Abdullahs, Yadavs, Badals and Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao aka NTR who learnt the hard way, losing their fiefdom.

All eyes thus, on Pawar on how he would react to humiliating electoral defeat of 2024 Maharashtra polls where his faction of NCP finished a poor 6th with 10 assembly seats.

What is more embarrassing for Sharad Pawar is that his image as a 'Maratha strongman' has taken a beating and the new 'Pawar saheb' is his estranged nephew Ajit Pawar, having managed to become deputy chief minister for the 6th time!

Pawar was often heard taking a potshot at his former party saying those in Congress should accept that the grand old party no longer holds sway from 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' like it once did. Pawar also loved narrating an anecdote about "zamindars (landlords) who have lost most of their land and are unable to maintain their 'haveli' (mansion). "I had told a story about Uttar Pradesh zamindars who used to have huge parcels and big 'havelis'. Due to land ceiling legislation, their lands shrunk. The havelis remain but there is no capability (of the landlords) to maintain and repair them," he used to mock the Congress comparing it with Zamindars of UP adding, "When the zamindar wakes up in the morning, he looks at the surrounding green fields and says all that land belongs to him. It was his once but doesn't belong to him now," Pawar had said without realising that he would himself become a zamindar in that mould soon.