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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Fire missing in Maharashtra legislature’s business

Mumbai: Outside the imposing gates of the state legislature, Mumbai is literally burning. The India Meteorological Department has issued heatwave alerts, with temperatures in parts of the state touching a blistering 42.5° Celsius. Mumbaikars are sweltering under a relentless sun, scrambling for shade, and grappling with the earliest, most aggressive summer heatwave in over a decade. Yet, step inside the Legislative Assembly, and the contrast is as chilling as it is baffling. While the city...

Fire missing in Maharashtra legislature’s business

Mumbai: Outside the imposing gates of the state legislature, Mumbai is literally burning. The India Meteorological Department has issued heatwave alerts, with temperatures in parts of the state touching a blistering 42.5° Celsius. Mumbaikars are sweltering under a relentless sun, scrambling for shade, and grappling with the earliest, most aggressive summer heatwave in over a decade. Yet, step inside the Legislative Assembly, and the contrast is as chilling as it is baffling. While the city sweats, the House remains lifeless, deserted, and devoid of any political fire. The budget session, traditionally the most critical forum for holding the government accountable, has unfolded as a subdued, almost ghost-like affair. For the majority of the day, the benches wear a desolate look, reflecting a legislative paralysis that is starkly disconnected from the heated reality of the state outside. There are no spirited debates, no frantic floor management, and no major announcements addressing the public’s mounting crises. Instead, the political discourse has been reduced to a lukewarm blame game. Lack Of Momentum Senior minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, clearly unimpressed by the state of affairs, pointed a finger at the opposition for the lack of momentum. “Actually, it is the Opposition that drives the debates and discussions in the house during the session. But it appears as if they have lost the drive to do so,” Vikhe-Patil remarked. The opposition, however, claims the fire has been extinguished by the government’s own indifference. NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil countered by highlighting the absence of leadership at the very top. “The CM is hardly there in the house,” Patil said, further accusing the ruling coalition of actively dodging debates on issues that matter to the common people—people who are currently bearing the brunt of both inflation and an unforgiving summer. Cold Opposition The irony of the situation is most evident in how “cold” the opposition has remained regarding “hot” scandals. The investigating agency has submitted its inquiry report into the controversial Rs 295-crore Pune land deal involving Amadea Enterprises, a firm linked to newly elected Rajya Sabha MP Parth Pawar. In any functional, high-intensity session, this would have triggered a political earthquake. Instead, the opposition has maintained a deafening silence. Neither have they demanded that the report be tabled, nor have they pressed for action. It is a political ice age in the middle of a literal heatwave. Political observers note that the treasury benches are content with the silence, as no government wants to voluntarily fan the flames of a controversy involving their own. But, the opposition’s refusal to act exposes a deeper, structural rot. Senior NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal offered a blunt diagnosis for this apathy - the opposition is “completely demoralized,” he said adding that consecutive electoral defeats in assembly and local body polls have shattered their morale, and their miniscule numbers in the House, compounded by toxic internal differences, have rendered them impotent. As the mercury climbs outside, the legislature remains trapped in a deep freeze of inertia. The state’s politicians are seemingly oblivious to the irony: while Maharashtra burns under an intense heatwave, the very institution designed to generate the “heat” of democracy has completely lost its spark.

Family Fracture

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

Family Fracture

After more than a year of frenetic speculation, the Pawars of Baramati now seem to be visibly and definitively divided. This Diwali, Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister, broke a five-decade tradition by hosting his own Diwali Padwa celebration, a custom long overseen by his uncle, Sharad Pawar, at his Govind Baugh residence in Baramati. The split festivities underscore a deepening fissure within Maharashtra’s most iconic political dynasty, and mark Ajit’s intent to assert an independent influence over the constituency his uncle has cultivated for decades.


While Ajit’s decision to join the ruling Mahayuti coalition with the BJP and CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena in July 2023 after splitting the NCP founded by his uncle indicated a clear rift, the political class and public alike had remained sceptical about its genuineness. Many believed it was a strategic divergence rather than a lasting break—a ploy by the Machiavellian Pawar senior the high-stakes chess game of Maharashtra politics. Ajit’s frequent meetings with Sharad Pawar at different venues in the months immediately after the rift only fueled these suspicions, suggesting he might eventually return to his uncle’s fold and that it was an elaborate deception plan to checkmate the BJP in Maharashtra led by Devendra Fadnavis.

While these rumours about Ajit being a ‘Trojan Horse’ in the ‘enemy’ Mahayuti camp continue to simmer, Ajit’s decision to host his own Diwali Padwa celebrations ought to send a resounding message that this split is genuine and unlikely to heal soon.


However, since last July, the rift between the two NCP factions has only deepened, culminating in the bitterly contested Baramati Lok Sabha race. Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, the opposition MVA’s candidate, decisively held her seat against a strong challenge from Ajit’s wife, Sunetra, representing the Mahayuti.


Despite Ajit Pawar and the BJP and Shinde Sena straining every sinew for Sunetra Pawar, she lost heavily to Supriya Sule by over 1.5 lakh votes – a defeat that continues to rankles with Ajit and adding to the ignominy of Lok Sabha defeats from his family. (In 2019, Ajit’s son, Parth Pawar, had crashed in the Maval Lok Sabha contest, becoming the first member in the Pawar clan to lose an election).


Sule’s win demonstrated the formidable support base the senior Pawar faction still commands in Baramati. Now, to supplant Ajit as legislator of Baramati Assembly segment, which he has held for nearly 35 years straight, the canny Sharad Pawar has fielded Ajit’s own nephew, Yugendra, giving a perverse yet ironic twist to the uncle-nephew saga in Maharashtra politics.


In this light, Ajit’s Padwa gathering indicated that the divide within the family is no longer a mere rumour but a palpable, public reality. His decision to hold a separate Padwa celebration now makes the split appear irrevocable while indicating his steely resolve to defend Baramati against his own nephew, Yugendra Pawar.

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