Explained: How Ajit Pawar's move echoes Sharad Pawar's 1978 rebellion

History likes to repeat itself. This appears to be true in Maharashtra politics. The split of Ajit Pawar from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and joining the Eknath Shinde government must have reminded Sharad Pawar of his rebellion against the Vasantdada Patil government in Maharashtra in 1978. The difference this time is that it was his nephew, Ajit Pawar, who sounded the rebel bugle.

Sharad Pawar rebelled from the Congress around 45 years ago, along with 40 other MLAs. As a result, the then-Patil government fell.

Let’s take a closer look.

Sharad Pawar’s play in 1978

The events of Sunday are simply the latest in a series of political earthquakes in Maharashtra, including Sharad Pawar’s power takeover in 1978.

He was sworn in as chief minister of the Progressive Democratic Front, which comprised several opposition parties, on 18 July 1978.

In 1977, soon after the Emergency was lifted, the Congress party underwent a division. It split into two factions: the Congress (I), led by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the Congress (Urs), led by D Devraj Urs, who was the chief minister of Karnataka at the time, as per a report in Swarajya. However, after the Maharashtra Assembly election in 1978, both factions united to prevent the Janata Party from assuming power. They formed a coalition government under the leadership of Vasantdada Patil.

Sharad Pawar had also joined the Congress (Urs) with his mentor YB Chavan and had become a minister in the Patil government. However, he soon left his party and sought support from the Janta Party to become chief minister at the age of 38.

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The principal reason why the rebels decided to part ways with the government was the “humiliating” treatment meted out to them. An Indian Express report quotes then Maval MLA Krishnarao Bhegde saying, “Deputy Chief Minister Nashikrao Tirpude, who belonged to Congress (I), openly criticised Chief Minister Patil, Pawar and his mentor Yeshwantrao Chavan. Tirpude was saying things that didn’t go down well with the likes of Pawar and his close aides.”

Veteran journalist Prakash Joshi said, in 1978, the legislature session was on and then Home Minister Nasikrao Tirpude had warned CM Vasantdada Patil about a threat to his government from Industries Minister Pawar.

“Vasantdada replied (to Tirpude) that Sharad just met me. Later in the day Vasantdada resigned as CM,” Joshi recalled.

Ajit Pawar does a repeat

Something similar played out in June last year when Eknath Shinde got 39 MLAs to rebel against CM Uddhav Thackeray, leading to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Shinde with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party formed a government on 30 June last year.

In 2019, Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy CM along with CM Devendra Fadnavis in an early morning ceremony in Raj Bhavan post the Assembly polls and split between the BJP and Shiv Sena.

However, the government lasted for less than 80 hours and Ajit Pawar returned to the NCP.

Incidentally, while Sharad Pawar took away senior Congress leaders Govindrao Adik, Sushilkumar Shinde in 1978, his nephew Ajit Pawar on Sunday did a repeat by taking away staunch loyalists of the NCP supremo like Dilip Walse Patil, and Chhagan Bhujbal.

With inputs from PTI

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