top of page

By:

Rajendra Pandharpure

15 April 2025 at 2:25:54 pm

BJP eyes chances in Western Maharashtra after the Pawars

The death of Ajit Pawar has unsettled western Maharashtra, leaving the BJP cautiously biding its time Pune: Western Maharashtra has long been Indian politics in miniature: dense with sugar cooperatives, caste arithmetic, money and muscle power. For decades it was shaped by one extended family – the Pawars - whose writ ran from district banks to dairy unions and from assembly halls to village panchayats. The sudden death of Ajit Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) strongman and...

BJP eyes chances in Western Maharashtra after the Pawars

The death of Ajit Pawar has unsettled western Maharashtra, leaving the BJP cautiously biding its time Pune: Western Maharashtra has long been Indian politics in miniature: dense with sugar cooperatives, caste arithmetic, money and muscle power. For decades it was shaped by one extended family – the Pawars - whose writ ran from district banks to dairy unions and from assembly halls to village panchayats. The sudden death of Ajit Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) strongman and Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister, has jolted this ecosystem. The aftershocks are being felt most keenly not by his rivals, but by his ally, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has long coveted the region. Maharashtra’s politics has always been regionally segmented. The BJP is entrenched in north Maharashtra; it has broken through spectacularly in Mumbai, including wresting control of the municipal corporation; Vidarbha remains Congress-leaning while Marathwada is competitive and volatile. Family Bastion Western Maharashtra, by contrast, has remained been the Pawars’ citadel. Control over cooperatives, especially sugar, has translated into rural loyalty, financial muscle and electoral dominance. The NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar, thrived on this architecture. The BJP, despite its national rise, has struggled to crack it. Rather than dislodge the system, the BJP sought to co-opt it. Disaffected satraps were inducted like Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara; the Mahadiks in Kolhapur; the Mohite-Patils in Solapur. Local strongmen such as Rahul Kul in Pune district were elevated and veterans like Harshvardhan Patil were brought in, if only briefly. The idea was to gradually bleed the undivided NCP led by patriarch Sharad Pawar. That effort has intensified as the BJP eyes an audacious goal: returning to power in Maharashtra on its own in the 2029 Assembly election. For that to happen, western Maharashtra is indispensable. It is no accident that the Modi government had created a new Union ministry of cooperation, handing it to Amit Shah. Cooperatives are the region’s political bloodstream. After the 2024 general election, Muralidhar Mohol, elected from Pune, was made minister of state in the same department. He was also informally tasked with western Maharashtra in a clear signal of the BJP’s strategic focus. Mohol’s brief was daunting: contain both Pawars. Sharad Pawar’s stature as a national deal-maker and Ajit Pawar’s grip on local machinery made them a formidable duo even when divided. Yet, the recent municipal contests in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad hinted at change. When both Pawars campaigned together, the BJP still managed to defeat them, suggesting that the old formula no longer guaranteed victory. Uncertain Times Then came the plane crash on January 28 leading to Ajit Pawar’s tragic death. His wife, Sunetra Pawar, was sworn in as deputy chief minister, an act of continuity intended to steady the ranks. While public sympathy is palpable, it has nothing to do with organisation. Sunetra Pawar will need time to command the networks her husband once ran by instinct. Her early gestures like visiting Karad to pay homage to Yashwantrao Chavan and invoking the legacy of Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar signal an attempt to anchor the party in its progressive tradition. Whether that rhetoric can substitute for Ajit Pawar’s authority is uncertain. Uncertainty abounds elsewhere too. Rumours swirl of a rapprochement or even a merger between the rival NCP factions. One scenario has Supriya Sule entering the Union cabinet. Another asks a more existential question: could Sharad Pawar, architect of Maharashtra’s secular, centrist politics, ever align formally with the BJP’s Hindutva project? His reported unease with a recent India–America trade agreement has fuelled speculation among supporters already anxious about ideological drift. Against this haze, the BJP’s restraint is striking. Rather than rushing to exploit the moment, it has preferred to wait and watch. The party knows that western Maharashtra is not won in a season. Cooperative elections, local bodies and caste coalitions move slowly. For now, the BJP is content to let the Pawars recalibrate, to allow factions to test their strength, and to intervene only when the contours are clearer. In a region where politics has long been about inheritance, Ajit Pawar’s absence has exposed how fragile even the most entrenched systems can be. The BJP senses opportunity, but is also aware of the attendant risks. Its wait-and-watch posture reflects a calculation born of experience. And in western Maharashtra, patience can be a weapon.

KL Rahul and the Inevitable Call

In late January 2026, KL Rahul sat down with Kevin Pietersen and spoke with rare honesty about retirement. At 33, the elegant Karnataka batsman admitted the thought had crossed his mind. “I don’t think it’s gonna be that difficult,” he said. “If you’re honest with yourself, when it’s time, it’s time. And there’s no point dragging it. Obviously, I’m some time away.” Those words landed like a quiet full stop on a career that has been anything but quiet. Rahul has not retired yet—he recently scored a composed century in the Ranji Trophy to help Karnataka advance—but the conversation feels timely. His body has been sending signals for years. The question is no longer if he will retire, but how much cricket his fragile frame has left.


Rahul’s talent was evident from the moment he announced himself. A classical right-hander with a high backlift and even higher elbow, he made batting look effortless whether opening in Tests or keeping in white-ball cricket. His ODI average hovers around 50, a remarkable number for a top-order player who has also shouldered wicket-keeping duties. In Tests he has scored over 4,000 runs at a shade under 36, including big hundreds against Australia and England. In the IPL he has been a consistent anchor and, more recently, a calm captain for Lucknow Super Giants. Versatility defined him: opener, middle-order pivot, gloveman, and occasional leader.


Yet for every fluent cover drive, there has been a corresponding trip to the physio’s table. Rahul’s career reads like a medical journal of soft-tissue trauma. The list is long and painful.


In 2017, a shoulder injury sustained during the Pune Test against Australia forced him to play through pain for the rest of the series. He still scored 393 runs in that Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but the damage required surgery. He missed the 2017 IPL and the Champions Trophy. In 2021, acute appendicitis struck during the IPL; he underwent surgery and missed crucial games. Later that year, a left thigh strain ruled him out of a home Test series against New Zealand.


The 2022 sports hernia was particularly debilitating. A groin injury that had nagged him turned into a full-blown sports hernia. He flew to Germany for surgery and was sidelined for months, missing key Tests. Then came 2023—the year his body seemed to declare war. While chasing a ball in an IPL match for Lucknow against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rahul suffered a complete tear of his quadriceps tendon. “My tendon ripped apart from my quadricep,” he later described it. Surgery followed. The layoff stretched nearly four months. He missed the World Test Championship final and parts of India’s white-ball summer. A niggle delayed his Asia Cup return further, forcing him to sit out the first two games.


These were not isolated incidents. Hamstring strains, thigh muscles, wrist sprains, forearm tweaks, and recurring groin issues have punctuated his career since his international debut in 2014. Between 2021 and 2024 alone, he battled at least half a dozen significant setbacks. Each comeback was met with applause, but also with the creeping realisation that Rahul’s body simply does not recover like it once did. Modern cricket’s calendar is relentless—IPL, bilateral series, ICC events, Ranji Trophy for fitness proofs. For a player whose game relies on timing and footwork rather than brute power, every missed week is costly.


The injuries have shaped the narrative around Rahul more than his runs. Critics called him inconsistent, fragile, or accused him of lacking the “X-factor.” Dropped from the Test XI multiple times, questioned as a keeper-batsman, and occasionally pilloried on social media, Rahul absorbed the blows with characteristic poise. In his Pietersen interview, he revealed the mental strategy that helped: “I tell myself I’m not that important.” That humility has served him well, but it also masks the frustration of a supremely gifted player whose prime was repeatedly interrupted.


My view is this: KL Rahul has been one of the most unfairly maligned Indian cricketers of his generation. Injuries robbed him of the chance to become the undisputed No. 1 batsman many expected after his breakout years. Had his body held up, we might be talking about 8,000-plus Test runs and multiple World Cup titles. Instead, his career is a study in resilience. Every time he has been written off, he has found a way back—often with a stylish hundred that silences the noise, at least temporarily.


(The writer is a senior journalist based in Mumbai. Views personal.)

Comments

bottom of page