Is Rohit Pawar being groomed for a bigger role?

A CLOSE CONNECT WITH THE ELECTORATE AND HIS GREAT UNCLE’S FAITH IN HIM MAKE ROHIT PAWAR A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH IN THE NCP(SP)

Mumbai: Rohit Pawar has the right credentials---he’s young, is popular in his constituency, delivers impactful speeches, has stayed loyal to his great uncle Sharad Pawar after the undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) split and bears the Pawar surname.

When Pawar senior asked Rohit to sit beside him during a press conference at his Modi Baug residence in Pune last year, it was a signal to party workers and the people at large that he had found a successor in the third generation of his family to lead the party. “I don’t have to worry about my old colleagues who have joined the other party. My priority is to create new leadership for Maharashtra,” he had said then. Ever since, Rohit’s role and popularity in the party are growing.

During the Lok Sabha elections this year, he toiled to ensure a victory for his aunt Supriya Sule while politely sidestepping questions about his other aunt and Sule’s political opponent, Sunetra Pawar.

Sauve and a son-of-the-soil together, Rohit has worked his way into the politics of Baramati by getting elected to the Zilla Parishad in 2017. Two years later, his uncle announced his candidature to the Karjat-Jamkhed constituency and Rohit won with a handsome margin. He showed no hurry to jump into a ministerial responsibility unlike some of his peers and chose to continue his work at the grassroots level.

Rohit is yet another member of the large and closely knit Pawar family. His grandfather Dr Appasaheb Pawar was Sharad Pawar’s older brother. Rohit’s parents, too, are closely involved in the social and educational activities of Baramati with strong connections with the people. His father Rajendra is chairman of Baramati Agro that provides employment to hundreds of people with a boost to the rural economy. He also heads the Agricultural Development Trust in Baramati that is at the forefront of cutting-edge research in the fields of agriculture and provides assistance and technical know-how to agriculturists. Rohit’s mother has struck a chord with the women of Baramati and of her son’s electoral constituency by running hostels, providing sanitary care and working for the upliftment and empowerment of rural women.

Encouraged by his great uncle, Rohit undertook a Yuva Sangharsha Yatra which began from Pune in October last year but suspended it in solidarity with the demand for Maratha reservations. It was an attempt to engage with the youth across the state especially in the western Maharashtra belt which has been the party bastion.

Rohit’s elevation in the party is believed to have ruffled Ajit’s feathers especially after he picked Rohit for the Maharashtra legislative party elections in 2019. Party leaders say that it was clear that the senior Pawar favoured Rohit over Ajit’s son Parth who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls. “Ajit Pawar had made enemies within the party’s senior leadership. Rohit doesn’t come with that baggage and he’s not spoken against his uncle Ajit either. He is more acceptable to party workers for his more approachable manner of working,” says a party insider. 

Ajit’s departure has made way for a bigger role for Rohit. He’s seen to be dynamic but not aggressive; is softer in his approach and interactions. His elevation to the president’s role of the Maharashtra Cricket Association, following in Pawar senior’s footsteps, is also seen as a stamp of approval.