Maharashtra result plunges NCP into uncertainty

MUMBAI: The state assembly election results have plunged NCP into a period of intense uncertainty. Despite its unilateral offer of external support to the BJP government, Sharad Pawar's party will be shadowed by some insecurity and vulnerability.

After NCP's 15-year-old alliance with Congress ended in late September, Pawar had focused all his energies on electioneering, going so far as to personally supervise the campaign at all levels. He addressed over 50 rallies across the state and launched a sustained attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Among other things, he criticized the PM for spending time on campaigning instead of in Delhi preparing responses to the attacks on the international border. The reproaches were echoed by Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule, and other senior NCP leaders, such as Sunil Tatkare, Chhagan Bhujbal and Ajit Pawar.

That Maharashtra's people did not completely buy into the criticisms is evident from their verdict. While NCP's tally of seats nosedived by about a third, BJP's nearly tripled.

A former NCP minister pointed out that Pawar had some months ago bowed out of electoral politics, declaring that he will not accept any government or administrative post, and that Sule is a Lok Sabha member. So the real political challenge, of making course-corrections in the state, will fall upon Ajit Pawar, Bhujbal, R R Patil, Jayant Patil and former speaker Dilip Walse-Patil.

"We have declared our support to BJP, but we are prepared to sit in the opposition," said RR Patil.

The blow at the hustings will strike all of NCP brass hard, but perhaps hit Ajit Pawar the hardest. The former deputy chief minister, though continually hounded by allegations of involvement in the state irrigation scam, had made no secrets of his ambitions to become the CM. After the Lok Sabha debacle, he was the first to observe that all parties should contest the assembly elections individually. As it later happened, BJP terminated its alliance with Shiv Sena, and NCP snapped its ties with Congress.

But while Ajit Pawar's prognostications on alliances came true, his aspirations did not. And with BJP achieving a credible victory, becoming the single largest party in Maharashtra for the first time, it remains to be seen when, or whether, his ambitions will come true.