Under a full moon, a tractor’s light bounces off chairs wet from a drizzle at an election meeting in Late village, about 22 kilometres from western Maharashtra’s Baramati. The power supply was cut an hour before NCP chief Ajit Pawar’s nephew Yugendra Pawar got up to urge the audience to pick a side between the two Pawar factions.
But a sense of mistrust was palpable within cadres of the formerly united Nationalist Congress Party. When Yugendra stopped speaking, the lights turned back on, and workers claimed the rival Pawar camp was behind the power cut – the other faction denied it.
As allegiances shift and haze out, what’s clear now in Baramati is only the battlelines for an election dubbed by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut as the fight for Maharashtra’s pride.
And Yugendra, like many others, has already picked a side – not the camp led by his father’s brother Ajit Pawar, but the one under his father’s uncle Sharad Pawar.
Ajit Pawar’s NCP is contesting four seats along with the BJP-Shinde Shiv Sena in the Mahayuti alliance, while Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction is contesting 10 seats as part of the MVA alliance with Congress and Shiv Sena (Uddhav) in Maharashtra. But it’s the Pawar stronghold of Baramati which is the most pitched battle for the two NCP factions this time, with Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar pushing her maiden election campaign against Sharad Pawar’s daughter and three-time MP Supriya Sule.
And depending on who you ask, it’s a fight between either tai (sister) and vahini (sister-in-law), or daughter against daughter-in-law, or tai versus dada (Ajit Pawar), or dada versus saheb (Sharad Pawar), or saheb against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ajit Pawar’s brother Shrinivas and his son Yugendra have thrown their weight behind Supriya Sule who is contesting on the faction’s new symbol, a man blowing the tutari. Ajit’s sons Parth and Jay are supporting Sunetra with the original clock symbol – granted along with the NCP name to the faction by the Supreme Court.
Sule and Sunetra, meanwhile, have deployed a similar campaign style, rushing through village after village, many of them drought-prone, holding yatras, making promises, visiting homes and shops, with one message – look at the work done, and stand by this Pawar. And during their campaign, they have both brushed off talk about how the election will impact family relations.
Newslaundry spoke to dozens of NCP’s traditional voters, party workers, and leaders, across Baramati’s length and breadth, to understand which Pawar faction has a stronger hand this election.
The saheb-tai camp
Almost everyone is a traditional NCP voter in Baramati. Out of the 30 voters Newslaundry spoke to at length, 28 of them have voted for NCP in the last few elections too – which, before the split last year, included Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, and Supriya Sule.
The split means deciding which Pawar to side with. The senior Pawar’s contributions to Baramati means there is immense amount of respect and gratitude for him – even among those who are choosing to side with his nephew this time round.
There is also no denying the sympathy wave for him in Baramati. Voters feel for him, for the 83-year-old patriarch who has been “betrayed” by his very own in what could possibly be his last election. But the question of whether this sympathy will be able to translate to votes has left political pundits with no answers.
Praveen Kumar Suresh Pawar, a 40-year-old from Baramati, believes that the people of Baramati owe it to Sharad Pawar to be with him in his winter years.
“How many days does he have left? He needs us right now; this could be his last election,” said Suresh Pawar, who has been voting for NCP ever since he was eligible to vote 22 years ago. “Saheb is our elderly and has made Baramati what it is today. Ajit dada can win later – who knows, the party may even get back together.”
He revealed the “formula” that at least five other residents of Baramati also told Newslaundry – that they had decided among themselves to continue the tradition of voting for Sule in the Lok Sabha seat, and Ajit for MLA.
But it is this very allotment to this position that was said to be one of the reasons behind the Ajit faction’s breakaway from Sharad Pawar last year. Days before the split, senior Pawar named Supriya Sule and Praful Patel the party president, to which he made his disappointment clear.
And then there is the issue of the alleged misuse of central agencies against the BJP’s opponents. The NCP (Sharad Pawar) workers and supporters speak of an alleged “washing machine” phenomena in Indian politics, which means if a central agency is investigating you, there will be no action against you if you switch to the BJP camp. Incidentally, the Economic Offences Wing last week gave Ajit and Sunetra clean chits in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank case.
“Politics has changed these days. Dada went with the BJP due to the fear of ED,” said a Baramati local, who did not want his name mentioned. “But this is just a matter of a few days; dada will soon return to the party. I have voted for saheb for five years and I’m surely going to continue to do so. BJP is no match to Pawar.”
Sule’s team told Newslaundry about door-to-door campaigns they had undertaken to educate people about the new symbol. The advantage of the new symbol being a musical instrument that party workers can organise to be played, over and over, has also resulted in solidifying the image in the mind of the voters.
Sharad Pawar’s faction also has the additional burden of educating voters of their brand new symbol, a man blowing the tutari. But at least on the surface, this doesn’t seem to be an issue playing out, with everyone being familiar with the tutari thanks to the campaigning around it.
Many also directly refer to the party by the symbol name. “Aye tutari!” yells an autorickshaw driver to a passing party worker on the streets of Baramati.
Sule’s team told Newslaundry about door-to-door campaigns they had undertaken to educate people about the new symbol. The advantage of the new symbol being a musical instrument that party workers can organise to be played, over and over, has also resulted in solidifying the image in the mind of the voters.
But there’s a round two to the battle of the tutari – the Election Commission last week also granted the symbol (minus the man playing it) to an independent candidate in Baramati. The Sharad Pawar faction has filed a complaint with the EC, worrying that voters might pick it by mistake.
Sharad Pawar’s goodwill is written all over Baramati.
“If Sharad Pawar wasn't born in Baramati, what would we be?” asked Ashish Jagtap. It is a sentiment reflected by everyone, even those supporting Ajit-Sunetra this time. The elevation of a rural district to a three-tier city that can stand shoulder to shoulder with Mumbai has happened due to his efforts, they say.
When the party broke, Jagtap, a Maratha activist, recalled going to Govind Bagh, the residence of Sharad Pawar. “I’m an output of his work,” he said, adding that he was only able to get a college education because of the senior Pawar’s efforts in building the infrastructure.
But there are other factors.
Six assembly constituencies fall under the Lok Sabha Baramati seat. Out of these six, two belong to the Ajit-led NCP faction (Baramati and Indapur), two are with the BJP (Daund and Khadakwasala) and two are with the Congress (Purandar and Bhor). That gives Ajit the edge of four constituencies over Sharad’s two.
It has not been easy for the coalition party workers to stick to the sides of their party, either. At one of Sule’s campaigns, a member of the MVA coalition told Newslaundry that he is with dada, but had to come out to show support to Sule to not upset the other leaders.
Party offices of the two factions are right next to each other in many places. The NCP (Sharad Pawar) new office in Baramati, for example, offers a bird’s-eye view from the backdoor into Ajit Pawar’s office. In Indapur, meanwhile, the offices of both factions are located in the same building, with one’s floor as another’s ceiling.
The dada-vahini camp
Despite being just a floor away from the other NPC faction, and the fact that they were colleagues a year back, the party workers from Ajit-led NCP in Indapur say that they no longer maintain friendly relations with the workers who have chosen tai’s side.
“Abhi humare beech mei ek diwaar aagayi hai (Now there’s a wall between us),” a party worker says. “We don’t talk to them and they don’t talk to us.”
It is in this village that Ajit Pawar made a remark last week that caused a storm. The 64-year-old had told voters that he would help the town with funds if they vote for him, or he will have to hold back his hand. But party workers brushed this aside and said that is “just his way of speaking”.
While the EC maintained that the remarks were not a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, support among his loyalists and voters is unwavering.
Voters who are siding with him are doing so because he looks into problems, holds weekly ‘darbars’ and because he can bring “more development”. Tai, meanwhile, is criticised for not being accessible to the locals.
Amol Gawad, a 38-year-old farmer in Baramati, justifies Ajit leaving the NCP faction.
“Such problems happen in the family. Didn’t this happen in Dhirubhai’s (Ambani) house too?” he asked. “I am standing with dada because whenever we approach him for any help, he immediately does it. He doesn’t say come later or ask someone else. When we would meet (Sharad) Pawar saheb, he would also say ‘meet Ajit and he will get it done’.”
Gawad also says that if the government in Maharashtra is an ally of the central government, they will be able to get more work done – a sentiment that is echoed by many of those supporting Ajit Pawar.
Sunetra, too, realises this, and has used this to push the idea that Ajit and the Modi camp allies are focussed on development, while appealing for votes. In her campaign speeches, Sunetra says she is standing for her husband as it is her “duty” and stresses on his work.
With this being her maiden election, her speeches lack the finesse of other three Pawars, who have become political veterans. Sunetra is usually the one working behind the scenes, campaigning for other members of her family.
Ajit Pawar also has the support of sugar cooperatives, with their directors and former directors coming out in the streets to campaign for his faction. They dismissed the opposition’s “washing machine” charge in a conversation with Newslaundry during one such campaign in a village, and said that they were with Pawar Junior because it would result in further development.
This is also an idea that many voters, especially the traders and businessmen, seem to be buying.
Riyaz Sheikh, a businessman, says he will support the Ajit Pawar faction even though he doesn’t want Modi to come to power. Why?
“Dada is the one who has developed Baramati from a tehsil to a world-class city. And when I think of the future, I see only dada being able to take this forward,” he said. “I don’t like the hate Modi is spreading and wouldn’t want to see him as my prime minister but I have to think on a local level.”
Many are undecided too.
For example, Subhash Sopana Jadhav, a farmer and tea seller living on the outskirts of Baramati, cannot recall an election where he has not voted for Sharad Pawar or a candidate endorsed by him.
But this time, he is in a dilemma, because his family and neighbours have pinned their hopes onto the Ajit Pawar camp.
“I have voted for him (Sharad Pawar) across symbols – a hand, a pair of bullocks carrying yoke, a cow with a sucking calf, and a clock. This time too, I want to vote for the tutari. But I’m not so sure if I will,” he said.
Baramati is among 11 seats in Maharashtra that will go to the polls in the third phase on May 7.
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