Why did Sharad Pawar extend unconditional support to BJP?

Sharad Pawar has a habit of surprising his supporters and critics. His decision to extend unconditional support to the BJP government in Maharashtra, shocked many, including BJP leaders (except Nitin Gadkari). However, his political journey is in coherence with his latest decision. Pawar's politics in the last five decades reeks of sheer opportunism.

Pawar claims to be the protégé of Maharashtra's first Chief Minister Y B Chavan, who was known for his loyalty to the Congress high command. But it is important to remember that Pawar, despite being an important minister in Vasantdada Patil’s ministry, backstabbed his guru in 1978 and broke away from the then Congress government to form the PDF government with Janata Party in Maharashtra. He became the youngest chief minister at the age of 38. But Congress leaders never forgave him for backstabbing the party.

During the Emergency, Pawar served as the Home Minister of the state. But the moment he sniffed an opportunity, which was after the victory of the Janata Party, he deserted Congress without any hesitation. This was enough for Indira Gandhi to never trust him thereafter. Later on, Rajiv Gandhi inducted him in the Congress and made him chief minister in 1988. However, he was never loyal to Rajiv and was detested by Congress leaders in Maharashtra. After Rajiv's demise, Pawar rushed to Delhi eyeing the Prime Minister's chair, but failed miserably. Realising that the dream of assuming prime ministership was a distant one, he rebelled against Sonia Gandhi on the issue of her foreign origin in 1999 and formed the NCP. Interestingly, he was one of the prominent leaders who invited Sonia to become Congress President!

Sharad Pawar was No 2 in the ministry of Prime Minister Narsimha Rao. He was handling an important portfolio like defense, but his eyes were on Maharashtra, where his own protégé Sudhakar Naik was chief minister. Pawar wanted to run that ministry by remote control. When Naik refused to budge, Pawar destabilised him. He was accused of sending the army late during the Mumbai riots in 1993.

When Atal Bihari Vajpayee became prime minister, Pawar managed to enjoy the benefits of power by becoming chairman of the disaster management committee. Whether we like him or not, he has mastered the art of being close to power despite being in the opposition. His has close contacts across all political parties which he uses at the right moment, like this time in Maharashtra.

So why did Pawar announce his unconditional support to the minority government of BJP? For the first time since its inception in 1999, NCP finds itself out of power. It is very difficult for Pawar's associates to survive without power as they control sugar factories, banks, societies, which are accused of serious malpractices. BJP state president Devendra Fadnavis has already announced that his government will prosecute NCP leaders including Ajit Pawar who are involved in various scams. This is enough reason to press the panic button. There is a chance of a section of NCP MLAs breaking away from the party in these circumstances. Secondly, Pawar's right hand, Praful Patel, is in deep waters because of the Air India deal. If the Modi government decides to open his file, it will be one more blow for the NCP.

One more theory doing the rounds is that Pawar's corporate friends are pressurising Modi to accept his support in order to protect all vested interests. It is alleged that Pawar's man Friday in BJP is Nitin Gadkari who's nexus with contractors is an open secret. In fact, there are many common contractors between Pawar and Gadkari. If BJP accepts NCP’s support, all of them would renew their hope of being shielded. A large section of BJP is against aligning with NCP, but the top BJP leaders have shunned them. They perceive Pawar's move as a catalyst to pressurise Uddhav Thackery who was adamant during seat negotiations.

Pawar has clarified that NCP will never compromise with its core ideology. This can be taken as a big joke. One may ask, what is the core ideology of this Maratha Party? Secularism is a convenient plank for Pawar which he uses in every election campaign and forgets for the next 5 years. In this election, he used all the tricks, including the caste card to attack the BJP. Now he says he is supporting the BJP for a stable government. People are not fools not to understand his opportunism.

There is no doubt, more than Pawar, BJP and Narendra Modi will face a dilemma. During his Baramati rally, Modi described NCP as the Naturally Corrupt Party. Targeting the malpractices of NCP was one of the agendas of BJP during the election campaign. Even Pawar had targeted Modi, Amit Shah and RSS. He had called Modi ‘Hitler’ and Amit Shah a ‘murderer’. Now if BJP accepts NCP's support, it will hamper the credibility of Modi and BJP. Maharashtrian voters are well acquainted with Pawar's politics for the last 50 years. They have given up on NCP and Pawar. They expect good governance from BJP. If BJP decides to go with NCP, people will definitely feel cheated as they voted against NCP and Congress. And this will definitely be a bad beginning for the 'party with a difference'!