Mumbai: Finally breaking his silence after the significant debacle in the Maharashtra assembly election, veteran leader Sharad Pawar said that the election results were nowhere near what he or his alliance parties in the Mahavikas Aghadi had imagined.
Pawar, whose nephew Ajit Pawar joined hands with the BJP and split the three-decade-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was forced to form a new party called NCP (Sharad Chandra Pawar).
Of the 87 candidates fielded, Sharad Pawar’s party managed to retain only 10 seats. His grandnephew, Yogendra Pawar, who contested against Ajit Pawar in the Baramati constituency, lost by a massive margin of over one lakh votes.
Addressing the press in Karad, Maharashtra, Pawar said that he and his party would take time to study the cause of the defeat before drawing any conclusions. When asked if fielding Yogendra against a seasoned politician like Ajit Pawar had been a mistake, Pawar said there was no question of it being a wrong decision, as someone had to contest from that seat.
Just six months ago, Pawar had put up an impressive performance in the parliamentary election, winning eight out of the 16 contested seats. Today, however, the party is struggling for its existence.
At a joint press conference by the Mahayuti allies – comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction – the three leaders spoke about the “real” NCP and the “real” Shiv Sena party.
“It’s not a decision expected by us. It’s the decision given by the people. I must agree that Ajit Pawar has won more seats than us, but Maharashtra knows who is the founder of the NCP,” Sharad Pawar said.
Like the NCP, the Shiv Sena also split in June 2022 when Shinde took a majority of the MLAs with him and joined hands with the BJP. This breakaway faction gave him the chief ministerial role in the state. Uddhav Thackeray, who heads his faction, has also seen his party decimated, winning only 20 seats. The Mahavikas Aghadi has, in total, managed fewer than 50 seats in the state.
On the other hand, the Mahayuti has secured 230 seats, with the BJP winning a remarkable 132 seats – arguably its best performance in Maharashtra.
Among the many questions asked of Sharad Pawar today, one was about the party’s future and whether he would retire from the electoral process. To this, Pawar responded, “It’s been just a day, and here I am, in front of you all, addressing you and talking about politics. They (Mahayuti) don’t get to decide when I should retire. My colleagues and I will decide that,” he added.
