Soon after rebel Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar split his uncle Sharad Pawar’s party to align with the ruling Eknath Shinde-led government, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis had said that while the BJP’s alliance with CM Shinde’s faction of the Shiv Sena was “emotional,” that with Ajit Pawar’s NCP was borne of political necessity.
Yet, barely two months later, the BJP’s ‘realpolitik’ appears to be floundering, with Mr. Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra’s second Deputy CM, seeming intent on marching to the beat of his own drum.
Mr. Ajit Pawar’s resuscitation of the 5% quota for Muslims in educational institutions in Maharashtra has put the BJP in a spot, with the BJP leadership including Mr. Fadnavis maintaining a deafening silence on the issue.
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Last week, Mr. Ajit Pawar, in his capacity as Maharashtra Finance Minister, held meetings with State Minorities Affair Minister Abdul Sattar (of the Eknath Shinde-led Sena group), his NCP colleague and Minister Hasan Mushrif, along with top Waqf Board authorities on the reservation issue as well as other issues concerning the Muslim community.
When asked whether his raising the 5% quota for Muslims in education would affect his relations with his ally, the BJP, Mr. Ajit Pawar, speaking in Pune, had pointedly said: “This [Muslim] community too is a part of Maharashtra and India. I think of every community when I am working. Right from the start of my career, I have worked by keeping the ideals of Chhatrapati Shivaji in front of me and have trodden the progressive ideological path of the reformers Rajarshi Shahu-Jyotirao Phule- Babasaheb Ambedkar.”
Mr. Ajit Pawar tellingly remarked that when he had joined the Shinde-BJP government, both Mr. Shinde and Mr. Fadnavis had assured him that if there was any difference of opinion among the three parties on any issue, they would sit down and find a solution.
The question uppermost in the minds of observers is why Mr. Ajit Pawar is raising the Muslim quota issue at a time when the ruling tripartite government is already beleaguered by quota demands from a restive Maratha community, besides the OBC and the Dhangar communities.
Political crisis over quota
Soon after their electoral rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the then Congress-NCP Democratic Alliance government in Maharashtra led by CM Prithviraj Chavan had swiftly approved of a 16% quota for Marathas and 5% quota for Muslims in government jobs and education institutions.
The BJP, then in opposition, had dubbed the move to provide reservation for Muslims as politically motivated and unconstitutional.
When the BJP came to power after the October 2014 Assembly election in the State, then CM Devendra Fadnavis immediately scrapped an ordinance providing reservation for Muslims despite the Bombay High Court having allowing a quota for the community in educational institutions.
However, the pendulum swung again with the formation of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in late 2019. The then Minority Affairs Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik announced in 2020 that the MVA would bring a law for Muslims to have 5% reservation in educational institutions.
As Leader of Opposition during the MVA’s tenure, Mr. Fadnavis had opposed the announcement by pointing that the Constitution did not have any provision for reservation based on religion.
According to political analysts, Mr. Ajit Pawar’s raising of the Muslim quota issue is a signal that despite his aligning with the ideologically opposed BJP, his NCP faction’s ‘progressive’ ideals remain untarnished.
Senior political analyst Vivek Bhavsar opines that Mr. Ajit Pawar is aware of the BJP’s dependence on his NCP faction to win the 2024 Lok Sabha in Maharashtra.
“The BJP needs Ajit Pawar’s NCP to win many of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the State. However, Mr. Ajit Pawar has kept his focus on expanding his faction in the State with the awareness that the BJP might jettison him after the Lok Sabha once it has made use of his NCP,” said Mr. Bhavsar, speaking to The Hindu.
In fact, Mr. Ajit Pawar has already begun strenuous campaigning to wrest back the cash-rich civic body of Pimpri-Chinchwad, his former bastion in Pune which is currently held by the BJP, indicating that the political alliances could be very different for the civic body elections.
Pune-based analyst Rajendra Pandharpure said that following the NCP split, Mr. Ajit Pawar’s strategy was to gain support from as many sections that traditionally voted for the undivided NCP.
“He [Ajit] is unlikely to compromise on the expansion of his faction despite allying with the BJP. With the Maratha vote already split among several parties including the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT), the Sharad Pawar-led NCP group, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navanirman Sena as well as the BJP, Ajit Pawar is going after the Muslim votebase,” he said.
Published - September 26, 2023 07:17 pm IST
