As NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar reaffirms his opposition credentials, NCP leader Sunetra Pawar focuses on consolidating her faction within the Mahayuti. The two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are pursuing distinct political agendas in Maharashtra. While Sharad Pawar has ruled out a merger or realignment and is seeking to strengthen his party in the opposition, Sunetra Pawar is consolidating the faction aligned with the ruling Mahayuti government, with an eye

A veteran journalist recalls the devastation, the race to Ground Zero and a remarkable night with Sharad Pawar following the earthquake that shook Maharashtra and India. Flashback: Latur, circa September 29–30, 1993 As the world woke to an unprecedented calamity that had engulfed Maharashtra, I was probably the first outstation journalist to reach Latur — barely 15 hours after the earthquake struck in the dead of night on September 29–30, 1993. It was around 3:56 a.m. when th

AI Generated Image Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar attempted to corner the Maharashtra government over the alarming rain deficit and resultant crises in farmlands, by demanding that a ‘drought’ must be immediately declared in rain-starved talukas besides announcing a relief package of at least Rs 50,000 per hectare for affected farmers, on Friday. In a strong letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Pawar warned that the prolonged failure of

As speculation over Sharad Pawar’s equations with the NDA resurfaces, Maharashtra is reminded that its most enduring political constant has always been uncertainty. There is an old Mumbai saying that seasoned political observers have long enjoyed repeating: “Ghode ki laath aur boss ki baat par kabhi bharosa mat karna” (never trust a horse’s kick or a boss’ word; either can come without warning). If Maharashtra’s politicians were updating the proverb today, one more cautionary

Maharashtra’s politics has long excelled at the peculiar art of disguising power politics as moral philosophy. No leader mastered that craft more deftly than NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. Beneath this carefully lacquered image has lain an older and cruder reality of caste consolidation masquerading as reformism. The latest controversy involving NCP (SP) spokesperson Vikas Lawande and sections of the Warkari community reveals the contradiction with unusual clarity. Lawande had

In Maharashtra’s long and complicated history of politics, very few stories are as fascinating or as layered as the silent but very real tug-of-war happening inside the Pawar family. On one side stands the patriarch, 85-year-old Sharad Pawar, one of India’s sharp political minds who has been Chief Minister of Maharashtra four times. On the other stands Parth Pawar, his grandnephew and son of the deceased Ajit Pawar, who has just been sworn in as a Rajya Sabha MP. While Sharad

Inside the ruthless succession war for the soul of the NCP Mumbai: In a significant revelation that sheds light on the internal fractures of Maharashtra’s most prominent political dynasty, a senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader has disclosed that a merger between the two rival factions was nearly finalised following the tragic death of Ajit Pawar, only to be derailed by a bitter battle for leadership. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the leader revealed that