No more Pawar play? Is Sharad Pawar losing his grip on Maharashtra politics?

The ruling Mahayuti has roared back to power in Maharashtra.

The alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) is leading in 226 seats.

This, compared to the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharad Pawar), which is ahead in just 55 seats.

Remember, the halfway mark in Maharashtra’s 288 seat Assembly is 145 seats.

But it is the performance of the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the NCP that has come under much scrutiny.

The Pawar-led NCP is ahead in just 13 seats – behind Uddhav Thackeray’s UBT which has 19 seats and  others and Independents who have 20 seats.

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Pawar, 83, formed the NCP in 1999 and served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra four times.

The party split in 2023 after his nephew Ajit formed a breakaway faction.

So, is this the end for Pawar’s reign in Maharashtra?

Let’s take a closer look:

Worst poll performance

According to Economic Times, this is Pawar’s worst poll performance ever in his decades of political experience.

The Ajit faction of the NCP has put on an impressive display in Maharashtra. The party is leading in 41 seats.

By contrast, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP is ahead in just 9 seats

Western Maharashtra, which has 70 Assembly seats in six districts, has in the past been a Congress-NCP bastion.

Catch up on all the live updates from the Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections here

However, this time, the ruling Mahayuti is leading in 41 of the 58 Assembly seats in western Maharashtra, while the Maha Vikas Aghadi is ahead in just 11.

Pawar’s NCP also trails Ajit’s NCP in the 26 seats which both sides have deemed crucial to their existence, as per the newspaper.

Worse for Pawar, this comes after his party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls where he came away as the decisive victor over Ajit – despite the rival faction being given the NCP’s original name and poll symbol.

Disaster in Baramati

The Pawar faction of the NCP has lost many of its bastions including the prestigious Baramati constituency where Pawar campaigned heavily for his grandnephew NCP (SP) candidate Yugendra Pawar against his nephew Ajit Pawar.

In fact, on the last day of campaigning, both NCP factions held simultaneous rallies in Baramati, the home turf of the powerful Pawar family in Pune district.

Ajit, the Maharashtra Deputy CM, won a massive victory against his nephew Yugendra.

Ajit defeated Yugendra by a margin of 1.16 lakh votes, as per PTI.

Ajit Pawar defeated his nephew Yugendra Pawar in Baramati. X/@AjitPawarSpeaks

As News18 noted, this occurred despite the Pawar clan – including Pratibha Pawar and Supriya Sule’s daughter Revati – campaigning for Yugendra.

The outlet reported that Ajit visited a slew of villages this time and spoke of the development that he had brought about over the past three decades.

He asked voters, who picked ‘Pawar saheb’ in the Lok Sabha polls, to pick choose him this time.

Chanakya no more?

This is a big fall for Pawar, who, as the Economic Times piece noted, was the mastermind behind the MVA.

It was Pawar, who is famed for having friends in high places everywhere in politics, that brought the Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP into an alliance in 2019.

“For Sharad Pawar, this election was more than just another poll; it’s a referendum on his legacy. A victory could have cemented his position as one of India’s greatest political strategists and a leader who defied age and adversity,” the piece noted.

It added that despite Pawar, Uddhav and Rahul going all out, the coalition was unable to undercut the Mahayuti.

A piece in News18 stated that Pawar may be witnessing the twilight of his political career.

Hints about retiring

Even before the devastating results of the Assembly polls, Pawar had dropped hints about retiring.

Addressing a rally in Baramati while campaigning for campaigning for grandnephew NCP (SP) candidate Yugendra Pawar, the NCP supremo was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times, “I will have to think whether to go in Rajya Sabha again or not.”

"I am not in power. I am definitely in Rajya Sabha. There is still one-and-a half years left. But after 1.5 years, I will have to think about whether to go to Rajya Sabha or not. I will not contest Lok Sabha. I will not contest any election," Pawar said as per India Today.

"I have contested 14 times. You (people) did not send me home even once. You elected me every time. But, I will have to stop somewhere... I will have to bring the new generation forward. I am working with this principle. This does not mean that I have left social work. But I do not want power. I will keep serving and working for the people," Pawar said.

“Now, it's time to prepare for the future. We need to groom leadership that will work for the next 30 years,” Pawar added as per Hindustan Times.

With inputs from agencies