'Praful Patel said his residential building was sealed, and the investigative agencies have shifted their office to his house, and that he was in a helpless condition.'
Will Sharad Pawar's trusted nephew Ajit Pawar and trusted shishya, Praful Patel leaving the NCP weaken the veteran leader?
What will happen to the initiatives taken by Pawar to bring all the Opposition parties together to take on the BJP in the 2024 elections?
P C Chacko, who has been with Sharad Pawar ever since both of them started their political journeys together, answers these questions in an interview with Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
Part one of a two-part interview:
Soon after the Ajit Pawar drama unfolded, you went to Mumbai...
Yes, I reached Mumbai a day after all these developments happened. By then Sharad Pawar had already left for Karad to attend his guru Y B Chavan's anniversary.
Though not many people knew Pawar was going there, there was a spontaneous crowd to greet Pawar.
He travelled a couple of kilometres in an open vehicle, it was like a road show, and there were thousands of people to see him.
At the samadhi, (Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister) Prithviraj Chavan also was there.
It was a very emotional and sentimental event, and he made a clear statement there that those who left us would not see the assembly again as people were with us.
You can say, that was probably the beginning of his campaign in Maharashtra.
When he came back to Mumbai, I met him.
What did you two discuss? Though Ajit Pawar has done it before, did his exit now shock both you and Pawar?
Not really. All of us knew Ajit Pawar would go. When he would be going was the only question. We were all aware of the attempt he made two months ago.
But there was an element of shock in Praful Patel leaving.
I was not sure how many MLAs were scared of the BJP. Most of these people went to that side to save their skin and not for any other reason.
There are investigations and inquiries by various agencies like the ED against many of the MLAs. That was what united all of them to go with Ajit Pawar.
After the truce that was made two months ago, Ajit was slowly meeting each and every MLA to find out the cases against each of them and how they could be solved.
Was Pawar hurt by Praful Patel leaving him? After all, he was very close to Pawar..
Sharad Pawar was very well aware of his nephew leaving, him but Praful Patel leaving was a shock to all of us, at least to me.
Pawar also did not expect Praful Patel to leave him.
When Praful Patel went to see Pawar, he told Praful, the impression outside is, you are the closest to me. If you leave me, what will be the message it will convey?
Then Praful Patel said his residential building was sealed, and the investigative agencies have shifted their office to his house, and that he was in a helpless condition.
He was almost in tears. After that, Pawar did not say anything.
Praful Patel went because he was constantly under threat.
But Pawar does not take one person going that seriously as he is a confident politician.
After seeing the crowd at Karad, he is confident that he can attract people wherever he goes.
Ajit Pawar said a man at 83 should retire and sit at home...
If he repeats it again, it will boomerang on him. If anybody abuses Sharad Pawar, it will come back to them.
In the same meeting, they had wanted Pawar's photo in the posters. They have taken an office close to Mantralaya and they have put up a big photo of Sharad Pawar there.
In fact, I was told Ajit told everyone not to criticise Sharad Pawar by name.
But his strategy changed to calling him an old man of 83 after he saw the crowd Pawar had attracted in Karad. Then came the desperate reaction.
He knows that if Pawar decides to fight, he will have no chance.
Praful Patel mocked the Opposition meeting in Patna saying he felt like laughing at the meeting as none of them had any MPs. Do you think Opposition unity will be in jeopardy now that Pawar has been hit by his own nephew?
Opposition unity was an idea mooted by Sharad Pawar first. Praful Patel was representing our party with Sharad Pawar.
At that time, he did not laugh though he knew many of the parties did not have MPs.
But the fact is, these regional leaders can help MPs getting elected. Regional parties may not have representatives in the parliament, but they are strong in their states.
He also knows that. Though he cannot directly attack Pawar, he had to say something to please the BJP.
He did not laugh when he met those regional parties previously. It was only after leaving the party, he felt like laughing.
We saw the BJP breaking parties like the Shiv Sena, NCP, etc. Did the Congress also indulge in this kind of politics when it was the major party in India?
Any political party in power will encourage, if not openly, dissent in the opposition camp.
But not with this kind of inducement of money and use of investigative agencies.
The way it is happening now, has never happened in Indian politics.
In those days, when there was natural dissent in a party, the Congress favoured one faction.
So, one can say the Congress also did the same thing. But the dimensions today are alarming.
Here, the top-most people are directly involved.
What is happening is immoral and it has not happened in this scale never before.
- Part 2 of the Interview: 'Only weaklings succumb to threats'
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
