- 14 hours ago
On this Special Report, editor Sahil Joshi provides an exclusive chronology of the political shift in Maharashtra following the sudden demise of Ajit Pawar. Joshi notes that the decision to elevate Sunetra Pawar to Deputy Chief Minister was unique because 'This is the first time the decision happened outside the family' circle, involving top NCP leaders like Praful Patel and Chagan Bhujbal before being conveyed to the Pawar family. The discussion explores whether Sunetra Pawar, a political newcomer, can successfully navigate the administrative challenges of the role and maintain the NCP's influence alongside a powerful Chief Minister like Devendra Fadnavis. The programme also examines the potential for a merger between the two NCP factions and the strategic role of the BJP in this transition. Analysts weigh in on the historical precedents of spouses taking over political legacies and the specific hurdles Sunetra Pawar faces in holding the party together amidst an existential crisis.
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00:00but i want to go to the my other guest start with you sahil because you were in baramati
00:04is it true that there was pressure from workers to make sunetra pawar the deputy chief minister
00:09as is now being claimed or was the real pressure from a section of the ncp which was worried about
00:16their own political future and whether they would remain ministers if the ncp merged what was the
00:21real reason and the hurry it is not even 72 just over 72 hours since ajit dada passed away
00:28well uh for every question there are multiple reasons rajdeep and we can clearly see i mean
00:34it's it's it's kind of a return rule in politics not only in maharashtra not only specifically for
00:40the ncp but any party any regional party run by the family that uh any big leader from the uh from the
00:47party uh either have a sudden demise uh obviously his son or a daughter or a wife takes over his
00:55position and that has been happening in india since very long time so obviously the ncp and
01:00powers are no different uh the second question is uh actually interesting whether why why the hurry
01:05and who initiated it i mean i can actually put it uh uh in a chronology because i was there in baramati
01:11uh the movement uh the the cremation happened within hours time uh the ncp's top leadership like
01:18praful patel chagan gujbal sunil tatkare and dhanan jay munde had a meeting uh in baramati itself
01:25they first discussed among themselves uh and uh you know they zeroed down on one name that is sunetra
01:30power because they also knew that uh only somebody who is power can take a decision of uh who will be
01:37replacing ajit power in baramati as an assembly constituency as well as in the government so
01:42obviously they first met and zeroed down on uh sunetra power at the same time sharat power was thinking
01:47of calling a meeting of the whole power commulgerate uh family i mean the extended family of
01:53powers uh to discuss that uh you know what should be the next course of action as far as ajit power's
01:59legacy is concerned uh but before that uh these four leaders after discussing among themselves they
02:05went and met with sunetra power uh uh her two sons parth and jay were also there and her uh um
02:12um uh nephew uh who is a bjp mla rana jakchit singh was also present at that meeting and there
02:18they actually first sounded out uh to sunetra power that this is what they have been discussing that
02:23uh you know you should be leading the party in maharashtra assembly and after that
02:27they flew down to mumbai meets uh um the chief minister of maharashtra devin rafat davis and uh
02:34tells uh they informed him that you know this is what we are thinking and fine we will take a final
02:39confirmation from sunetra power tomorrow by that time we want to retain our portfolios at the same
02:44time again the next meeting happens the next day meanwhile uh uh the political analyst and you know
02:52the uh ajit power's uh kind of a right hand man at that time the design box uh daresh arora flew
02:58down to baramati meet sunetra power informs uh the leaders that sunetra power has accepted the offer
03:04and after that uh we all know what happened and after that they actually announced that the next day
03:09immediately there will be a meeting of uh uh legislative party meeting has been called of
03:14the ncp uh all the mlh will gather and finally decide that sunetra power is going to be their
03:19leader so it was all planned that way what did not happen is the meeting called by sharat power
03:24the extended meeting of the power family and that is where you know this is the first time
03:29any decision of either splitting remaining uh who will be leading the party who will be contesting
03:35baramati was taken outside the family kamal gray uh it did not happen within the family even when
03:41ajit power split from ncp and formed his own uh party like he took over ncp at that time even then
03:48the family was involved in 2019 when ajit power took that early morning oath with uh devinder
03:54even after that there was a meeting of power family and they finally maneuvered ajit power to come
03:59back uh to his uncle and then ncp for a fold remain together this is the first time the decision
04:05happened outside the family and then it was uh uh conveyed to sunetra power and then sunetra power
04:10accepted that decision right today sunetra power has not gone and met with ajit a sharat power to
04:15inform that this is what we have been discussing and that's what sharat power was informing so
04:19basically they outwit sharat power uh in deciding who is going to be uh uh the one who is going to
04:26replace ajit power after his demise in the in the in the in the government uh one decision is still
04:32pending that is who is going to be the leader of the party who is going to be the president of ncp
04:37because that is the decision which will decide the fate of uh both the ncp fractions coming together
04:43and i think that will take certain time and of course the bjp will have its role to play in that
04:47uh my my understanding is that when ajit power was speaking with sharat power and ncp uh sharat power
04:54leaders ncp sp leaders at that time he had already taken devianta fadnavis into confidence
04:59he was informing him that this is what he has been planning it looked like that everything was
05:04planned and uh both the fractions were about to merge together and that is what i can guess also
05:09from anish gavande when he was speaking exactly the way uh a while back bridge mohan shrivastar was
05:14speaking from ncp uh ajit power fraction so both of them are talking in the same kind of a unison
05:19decision what has gone wrong right now is that the decision has happened outside the outside
05:24sharat power's preview and outside uh family decision so this is something which is a change and
05:29very very very interesting yeah sahil you have given us a very interesting chronology because i think that
05:36explains a lot of what is happening at the moment there rohit sandhavarkar i'll come to you in a
05:41moment but asif bamla has been very uh very excited or you know he's been putting his hand up asif bamla
05:49very simply does the is the bjp comfortable with the idea of a merged ncp with over 50 mlas and eight
05:58mps or you want a weak ncp that way you can control power bjp ke hat mein jiske jiski lathi uska uski bhaist
06:06you are controlling maharashtra do you want sarat power there be honest honest answer do you want a
06:12merged ncp or not thank you first of all it's a happy moment for maharashtra because uh uh i i don't
06:20think we ever had uh a women deputy chief minister so it's a moment of great pride we welcome this
06:26and of course this was the internal decision of the party after they had the clp meeting and of course
06:33this was decided by them it was their call because after seeing the situation there as sahil very uh very
06:39you know very appropriately mentioned the entire series of events uh after seeing the sentiment
06:46of the people there it was important for having a uh the party a face that could where they could feel
06:54that there is some responsibility or there is some leadership or okay there is a umeetri kiran
07:00sunitra thai has not been you she has been like a shadow with ajit dada over the years she's now a
07:26lokshaba uh she's a she's fought the lokshaba election she has been she's she's had the experience
07:32of more than a year of the sabhagra which is in delhi so it's not a difficult thing but i want to ask
07:37you three questions because you seem to be very disturbed radeep i'm sorry to say that uh in the
07:43entire conversation more than uh either of the powers i i i heard i heard anish gawande also very politely
07:50came up i i i am a mr mr bamla i am not disturbed i am watching it amused i am amused why i am amused at
07:58what is happening in maharashtra within 72 hours of someone as an ajit because because your party blames
08:07everyone else for one minute i'll tell you why i'm amused your party blames every other party for
08:12paribar vat but when your ally practices paribar vat no problem this is okay i am amused by your
08:19double standards the only ism that i know is opportunism can i can i have a detailed submission if you
08:26don't if you give me a little uninterrupted time please uh uh of whatever you came up with a that
08:34you uh that you needed somebody uh i'm replying to what you referred in your context okay
08:40a you said hold the party together yes it's the prerogative of the party who's lost a stalwart
08:47an iconic leader like an ajid dada to hold his party why would they not hold their party anybody
08:52would bjp would uh uh congress would anybody but and it has done in the past history has been in
08:58evidence to the same hey so that is the answer that it was vendettory to hold the party together which
09:05i think they as a party no give me the second chance take it they gave me a second point that
09:10a weak ncp is what you're forcing why do you foresee a weak ncp in a sunita maybe she could be
09:16doing uh she could over perform better than ajid for why are you underestimating a mahila deputy
09:23chief minister that i think is fairly wrong and i don't want to buy that we expect okay when somebody's
09:29due you you must encourage rather so you're saying i've taken your point five seconds five seconds and
09:36then you can these are only your points i'm just re-illustrating the same the dcp is in sorry the
09:42dcm is not a constitutional force but but the elected election of a clp leader is definitely a
09:50constitutional especially when there's a calamity there and where does bjp fall anywhere in this
09:55where you've always saying that bjp bjp you've been shouting uh gango over the fact i've been seeing
10:01this from yesterday that's not fair bjp had to accept this it is a time of grief and at this point in
10:06time if we don't stand with our alliance partner and power stop and devendra fatnavisji i've heard you
10:12i i was hoping to go to rohit chanda worker so it's important for us to stand strong and rock solid
10:18okay i just mr bamla there must come a time yeah you made your point you made your point mr bamla you
10:26made it emphatically the fact is and i want to put this about the wives who've taken over the legacy
10:32just take a look at this because there are some interesting names which come over sonia gandhi
10:38is the one which is cited the most often sonia gandhi the wife of late rajiv gandhi eventually became
10:45the congress chief and she was the longest serving congress president and at least for a while
10:50revived the party there is a mixed track record of sonia gandhi you could argue but certainly in 2004
10:57the congress came to power in delhi within five years of her taking it over number two rabri devi
11:04rabri devi was the wife of lalu yadav she became the chief minister of bihar after lalu's 1997 arrest
11:12in the fodder scam and that became controversial as well then you have janaki ramachandran wife of
11:19the late mgr she became tamil nadu's chief minister after mgr's death in 1988 and that was remember
11:28before eventually she wasn't able to hold the party so she was unsuccessful and eventually jai lalita
11:34is the one who took over the ai dmk so janki ramachandran is an example where the wife was
11:41unable to take over the legacy then you have now as i said sunetra pawar uh let me also put some other
11:49failures i think we should have put janki ramachandran also in the failure but another some of the other
11:54failures menaka gandhi wife of late sanjay gandhi founded the sanjay manch but wasn't fully successful
12:02although she was a very long serving mp so maybe she was very successful at least let's be fair to
12:07her in winning several elections but eventually joined the bjp she was not able to in that sense
12:14build the sanjay vichar manch further then you had lakshmi parvati it was an interesting case the wife
12:22of nt rama rao floated the breakaway tdp later joined the ysrcp so you've had various examples in
12:30politics or people who've joined from time to time but never really been able to sustain in in some
12:37cases in other cases they've been very successful what do you think will happen sahil do you believe
12:44that uh that sunetra pawar can be a successful uh the deputy chief minister uh given the fact that
12:53devendra fatnavis is an all-powerful chief minister controls home finance do you believe that she
13:00will be the one over time we are underestimating her and therefore maybe she could be successful
13:08well rajdeep uh you know the history has shown multiple examples that you should not take
13:13uh women in politics very lightly you know i mean uh certainly uh the uh you know those we have seen
13:19lot of women leaders who were actually very new to politics but eventually when they got opportunity
13:24and experience they had proved themselves but here the situation is completely different sunetra pawar
13:29is a newbie as a political leader she is the first she first time contested election 24 then uh
13:35after losing the election joined rajya sabai in june 24 and now she has suddenly became the deputy chief
13:42minister but but despite that she has come from a political family she has seen politics of maharashtra
13:48very closely since last 40 years that is that is definitely there and she has had a share of uh kind
13:54of a social service or handling uh the constituency for ajid power that that has always been there but
13:59now the situation is very tricky because she will also have to fed the party she will also have to run
14:04the party uh she will also have to uh you know make this working relationship with devendra fatnavis which
14:12he had very excellent working relationship with ajid power uh and also uh you know the leaders who had
14:18accepted ajid power's leadership uh uh because of his experience and um you know all all all all other
14:26reasons she will have to make them accept her leadership so there are going to be multiple
14:31challenges in front of her and also at the same time there is a ncpsp fraction which will also claim
14:36the way it happened in the case of jayal alita there were two aidmk fractions and eventually the power
14:41went with jayal alita so that tussle will always remain so somewhere she will have to make peace with
14:47the ncpsp fraction so that this amalgamation of both the fractions will happen eventually so that
14:53is going to be a very interesting and tough the point you made is very important i want to take
14:56that to rohit sandhavarkar senior journalist joining us rohit sandhavarkar do you believe that
15:03sunetra power can hold the ncp together will she basically be remote controlled by members within
15:10her party the likes of praful patel suni tadkare will she have to now accept dominance of devendra
15:16fatnavis or will she eventually be a bridge to sharat power how do you see this playing out
15:22rohit sandhavarkar uh coming to the second part of your question first which is will she be remote
15:28controlled and i think the answer is yes because you can you spoke with sahil and sahil knows everything
15:34and you also have great insight in maharashtra politics it is clear that she is not experienced
15:40not rooted in the vidan bhavan or mantra lay of mumbai and she might be intelligent educated and all of
15:48that and has a legacy and family background maybe running some cooperative organizations etc but just
15:55doesn't have the administrative experience so it is obvious that there will be sunit tatkare
16:00praful patel and a few others who will kind of control guide or i can use the word manipulate her
16:08also to some extent coming to the first part of your question will she be able to control the ncp
16:14the answer to that rajdeep is uh yes to a large extent because the party runs on emotions it runs
16:20on certain caste equations and it runs on the power family magnet so that part maybe she'll be able to
16:27manage a bit because she has two sons ajit power sons who will manage the crowd control the mass connect and
16:34all of that but uh another part that i want to mention here two observations quickly one is that
16:41i see the bjp taking over control of many things and it has started with the finance department in
16:47maharashtra which has been virtually snatched away from uh the ncp and devinder fernish will be the
16:53finance minister for tomorrow he will present the budget in the upcoming assembly session that is part one
16:59part two is who will control many other things ajit pawar used to wear many hats remember he was the
17:06guardian minister of pune district weed district very important politically important districts
17:12who takes over as guardian minister i don't think the bjp is going to give that space to ncp anymore
17:19uh chandra chandra kandada party was contender for pune guardian uh pune district guardian minister post he
17:25will snatch it away for sure similar things will happen in cooperative sector similar things will
17:30happen with bead and other places so the second part of this big story is how the bjp takes over
17:37the political space in western maharashtra in cities like pune in nasik in some pockets in marathwada
17:44and other places and eventually in mantrale also which was occupied majorly by ajit power rajdi
17:50right and my final part of that is where does that leave sharat power then i mean would you see a
17:59merger now mr power claim that a merger was going to take place on the 12th of february or is that is
18:05that relegated to the background yeah so you are very very well aware of this side also knows it inside
18:11out that since december itself right now uh there were some meetings between ajit power and sharat power
18:18some are now on camera nobody talks about these meetings some 10 or 12 meetings trust me happened
18:25and in that there was a discussion that sharat power in any case will take a back seat from april
18:30onwards when his rajasava term ends and there was some clear indication that both factions of the ncp
18:36will work together in the upcoming zilla parisad elections the voting is happening on 7th february
18:42they had decided to fight on the same symbol with the seat sharing formula now they are going to get the
18:48benefit of sympathy wave and of course sharat power himself was saying that now the party will be
18:53driven by ajit and supriya together but that twist has come famously the whole world knows now
18:59you also mentioned it started your show with that that because of this tragic incident and because of
19:05the things that have happened in two three days last two three days now the reunion of uh two factions
19:11of ncp seems to be on hold till three days ago you were saying i was writing and saying very firmly
19:18that there is no option for ncp which is facing an existential crisis to come together reunite the
19:24two factions and fight the forthcoming elections together as one force but that seems to be on hold
19:30and the beneficiary of this perhaps will be the bjp or almost clear that the bjp will benefit out of
19:36this side uh rajdeep sorry interesting uh you know uh you know i think roe chandavarkar and sahil have
19:44given us an excellent exposition of how maharashtra politics has played out but asif bamla yes i know
19:51you know no no mr bamla mr bamla hold on and let me ask you the question what has happened today
19:56deviendra fatnamis has taken over finance as uh please do ask me chalo ask me no i always see and
20:04i and i and i always come across one question that deviendra fatnamis is so powerful he's
20:10he's over he's going to overpower why do you always live in that pure psychosis we are happy and proud of
20:16our leader to be a powerful and why should a leader not be powerful it's fine he's number one
20:21i get a little feeling that you uh you know you you present that in a very in a very taunting way
20:34which i feel is not right a b i mean absolutely no no no no not at all mr bhamla i am very clear
20:42no mr bhamla one minute i am very clear very i am being very i am very clear that deviendra fatnamis
20:50has emerged as maharashtra's neta number one the bjp is the party number one i am saying that with as
20:56as an objective fact all i want to understand is as a result what happens to these allies do you need
21:03no no do you need them no no i am not happier that you can be happy i am asking mr bhamla one minute
21:10do you want the strong and you want strong allies are you happy to weaken them
21:14happy no no no no mr bhamla i am asking you a simple question do you believe that a strong bjp
21:25wants weak allies whether it's eknach shinde or uh ncp it suits the bjp now to have weak allies
21:33and that's how maharashtra politics will go forward the bjp will dictate them i will i will rather go
21:42with what sahil my friend said that uh never underestimate a woman leader in the past they
21:48proved to or supersede the protesters and we have full confidence and we're positive why are you
21:55underestimating she's someone who's not come uh uh if if rabbi could do if sonia ji was uh has also
22:02conducted herself in a very appropriate manner we're very positive about it and we and because
22:07devendraji is there he's there to encourage and okay also one more point that you said that bjp in
22:12poona bjb my party in poona has already been very it's a very powerful party we won the last
22:22asimji the bjp it cell entire bjp it cell has come in support of sunetra power fully this whole day
22:30i have never seen any bjp uh leaders and it's supporting it okay okay okay let's not get into
22:41a tutu mr bamla one minute it's my choice mr bamla i'm just going to i'm just going to add this thing
22:47uh
23:02mr bamla you are on a role you are on a role just hold on not you made it i just want sahil zoshi to give us
23:09the final picture. Sahil, is this the last chapter or is there a picture now? One minute.
23:15Sahil, please put his fader down. Sahil, is there a picture now or not?
23:21Yes, there is a lot of things to happen. And the most importantly, you know, please understand
23:26that NCP has solved only one problem at this point of time. As Rohit had mentioned, Ajit
23:32Pavan was wearing multiple hats. So they have solved only one problem that who is going
23:37to lead Baramati assembly segment and who is going to lead the party in the government.
23:42So that problem has been solved. Who is going to be the president of the party? One thing
23:47which has been communicated to the NCP leaders very clearly that it cannot be anybody else
23:51than Pawaz. So they will have to think about that as well. So right now it is working president
23:57Praful Patel who will be running the work of the party. But at the same time, they will
24:03have to sit together and someday they will have to solve this problem of, you know, both
24:08the factions, whether they are going to come together or not. Because the talks have already
24:12gone further. A lot of BJP leadership is already know of a lot of things. So there is, the picture
24:17is definitely abhi baaki hai. Ye toh sirv trailer hai. Picture abhi baaki hai. And there are a lot
24:21of things which will be cleared in next couple of months. Sir, Maharashtra, Sahil, there have
24:27been so many, there have been so many trailers that you don't even know when the picture will
24:33actually end. But that is the way Maharashtra politics has been. This is a new twist. Of course,
24:38we wish Sunetra Pawar well as we wish all politicians who come to these high posts. But we also raise
24:44the question that those who accuse others of Parivarvaad will now also have to look inwards
24:50and say, do you want your allies also to be Parivar parties? I thank my guests for joining us.
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