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Amidst the current Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) drama playing out in Maharashtra, a member of the Pawar family has clearly spelt out his allegiance and, as sources indicate, found his moment to shine.
Shortly after Ajit Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister Sunday, Rohit Pawar, the grand nephew of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, said he stood fully behind Pawar Senior. A day later, he was a prominent presence at his grand uncle’s Karad rally.
On Sunday, Rohit, the grandson of Sharad Pawar’s brother Rajendra Appasaheb Pawar, said: “Struggle lies ahead… but who is going to stop? Entire Maharashtra is with Sahyadri..(referring to Sharad). The wind will blow from the valleys and villages… Then who is afraid of the struggle? Battling and winning is in Maharashtra’s blood.”
He continued the messaging on Monday, showcasing his full support to Sharad Pawar.
Speaking to reporters near the NCP founder’s residence in Pune on Monday, ahead of the rally in Karad, Rohit said, “With what happened yesterday and the things that have been happening in Maharashtra over the last one year, voters are saying that politics has become filthy. They are feeling disgusted and wondering if they made a mistake by casting their votes. Even young MLAs who came to politics with some idealism are wondering if they made a mistake. People of the state are seeing their issues being sidelined. Leaders are trying to secure their own chairs and meet their personal goals.”
Asked if he had any inkling about the rebellion in the party, Rohit said, “Nobody has anticipated he (Ajit Pawar) will go. But we definitely had suspicions that the BJP will try to break the NCP. Today, the people’s mandate is not with the BJP and hence there was suspicion that it will try to break NCP as it had done with Shiv Sena.”
Hitting out at the BJP, which he claimed could not get power on its own, Rohit said, “Maharashtra is a land of saints and ideologies. It is in our blood to fight and let us do that for the people of the state. Pawar saheb is going to Karad to pay homage to (Maharashtra first CM) Yashwantrao Chavan whose politics was all about the issue of the people,” said Pawar.
At the Karad rally Monday morning, Rohit basked in the limelight, with party workers endorsing his loyalty to Sharad.
सातारा दौऱ्यावर असताना आदरणीय पवार साहेबांना लोकांचा असा विराट पाठिंबा मिळतोय…#लोक_माझे_सांगाती pic.twitter.com/unjyYPdWAp
— Rohit Pawar (@RRPSpeaks) July 3, 2023
“Rohit Pawar is with our party chief Sharad Pawar. He was in our party office yesterday in Mumbai… Today, he has given a strong statement.. We are all together and backing our party chief… Ajit Pawar has erred,” NCP State spokesperson Mahesh Tapase told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, that all was not well between Rohit and Ajit has been apparent within the party for long. A party source said that both did not speak about each other publicly. A Shiv Sena (UBT) leader from Ahmednagar said the two leaders were rarely seen together at public functions. There were also rumours of differences between Rohit and Ajit’s son Parth.
First time MLA, star campaigner, cricket administrator
Rohit, 38, shot into the limelight in 2019 when he contested his first Assembly election from the Karjat-Jamkhed constituency in the Ahmednagar district, away from the family bastion of Baramati where the Pawars have never suffered a defeat.
He ended up defeating BJP heavyweight Ram Shinde, a Cabinet minister in the then Devendra Fadnavis government, with a margin of 40,000 votes. Rohit was also the star campaigner for the NCP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Party leaders said now might be an opportune moment for Rohit to grow within the party. An NCP source said Rohit had become popular in his constituency and party. In fact, when Sharad Pawar recently resigned as party chief, speculations were doing the rounds of Rohit becoming party chief.
A close aide of Rohit said that the leader’s outspokenness could work in his favour.
“Unlike Ajit, Rohit never held back in attacking the BJP, or Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.”
The source also said that Rohit had “big ambitions” and “wants to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather”.
A taste of that ambition was witnessed in January when he became president of the Maharashtra Cricket Association. The revival of the Maharashtra Premier League as a showpiece event was credited to him.
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