How is Bharatiya Janata Party going to use Ajit Pawar? Will he stay with the BJP and contest the elections as an ally of the Mahayuti or will he separate from the Mahayuti and contest the elections alone and cut into the votes of Congress and NCP or will he once again return with his uncle Sharad Pawar? The answers to these questions are not easy. There is all-round suspense regarding Ajit Pawar. The reason for this is that on one hand the BJP leaders are directly calling them a burden and on the other hand the party is also trying to oblige them. How are these two things happening together?
BJP has just obliged Ajit Pawar’s NCP. His party’s MP Sunil Tatkare has been made the chairman of the Standing Committee of Parliament. Think, Ajit Pawar’s party has only one MP in the Lok Sabha. The government has given the chairmanship of the Standing Committee of Parliament to that party with one MP. He has also chaired the Standing Committee of important and creamy ministries like Petroleum and Natural Gas. Sunil Tatkare is considered to be Ajit Pawar’s most trusted confidant. After Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra’s Irrigation Minister was Sunil Tatkare. Keep in mind that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had alleged a scam of Rs 70 thousand crore in this ministry. This alleged scam is said to be during the tenure of Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare. Sunil Tatkare’s daughter Aditi Tatkare is a minister in the Maharashtra government. Therefore, making a party with one MP the chairman of the standing committee of an important ministry like Petroleum and Natural Gas is not a spontaneous decision. This means that BJP is looking at some role for Ajit Pawar.
There is also talk that as soon as the Shraddha is over, on the first day of Navratri, there will be distribution of 12 seats in the Assembly Council and NCP will get three seats. If this happens, it will clearly mean that no matter what anyone says about Ajit Pawar, he is not going anywhere. They are the work of BJP in some form or the other. Then the question arises that on one hand the BJP high command is showing so much goodwill towards him and on the other hand Maharashtra’s biggest BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has considered him a burden. Fadnavis said that BJP lost in the Lok Sabha elections because BJP supporters did not like the coordination with Ajit Pawar and Ajit Pawar did not even get the votes of NCP. However, he said that now 80 percent things have been fixed. There was no need to say this before the elections. Keep in mind that BJP and Sangh have said such things about Ajit Pawar many times before. But Amit Shah and top BJP leaders are talking to him about seat sharing. Amit Shah is going to Mumbai on October 1, where seat sharing will be discussed. Even on that day, the discussion on seat sharing will give an idea of what BJP is thinking about Ajit Pawar’s NCP. On that day, it will also be known how Amit Shah creates harmony between Ajit Power and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s party.