Cracks emerge in Maharashtra’s ruling coalition after a sulking Ajit Pawar skips NDA meet in Delhi

Cracks have begun to appear within the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti coalition in Maharashtra, after Deputy CM and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar skipped a key National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting in Delhi on Wednesday.

According to sources, a sulking Mr. Pawar, upset over the debacle of his party in the Lok Sabha election, gave the NDA meeting a miss. His faction of the NCP managed to win only Raigad Lok Sabha seat out of the four constituencies it had contested.

Mr. Ajit Pawar’s biggest loss was in the Baramati seat, where his wife Sunetra Pawar was thoroughly trounced by his cousin and incumbent MP Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. Despite a high-decibel campaign by Mr. Ajit Pawar and the Mahayuti, Ms. Sule coasted to victory, with a margin of more than 1.5 lakh votes.

‘Betrayed by allies’

Following the defeat, recriminations have begun in earnest, with NCP MLC Amol Mitakri today accusing the BJP and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena of not campaigning wholeheartedly for Ms. Pawar, dubbing her loss “a betrayal.”

‘The loss of Baramati has been a humiliating defeat. Our alliance partners did not work for us. This was a family seat. Anybody will feel upset with this defeat… We have a party meeting on Friday and I will raise this issue,” said Mr. Mitkari, who is also an NCP spokesperson. He added that he would “take names” of the leaders from the Mahayuti parties who had not campaigned as expected.

Uncertain alliance

Mr. Ajit Pawar’s poor performance in the election has cast a shadow over the future of his NCP within the Mahayuti coalition. In the run-up to the election, Mr. Ajit Pawar had swallowed a number of bitter pills to reconcile with his old adversaries, such as former Minister and Shiv Sena leader Vijay Shivtare from Purandar, and the BJP’s Harshavardhan Patil from Indapur, both of which are part of Baramati.

Mr. Shivtare, who had vowed to overthrow the Pawar clan by entering the Baramati contest as the third challenger, later reconciled with Ajit Pawar ahead of the poll.

However, despite the Mahayuti holding four of the six Assembly segments in Baramati, and Mr. Ajit Pawar himself being the MLA of Baramati for nearly 35 years, the ruling coalition failed to engineer enough votes for Ms. Pawar, leaving Ms. Sule to become the Baramati MP for the fourth time.

Following the result on June 4, Ms. Sule had thanked the people of Baramati for their firm support. “After the victory, our collective responsibilities have increased. Let bygones be bygones. Whatever happened during the elections did not befit Maharashtra’s politics and it should be avoided in the upcoming State elections. And for that, we will take the utmost precaution,” she said after her win.