To Fit Inside These Doors

That the NCP-Congress alliance in Maharashtra is on a sticky wicket is by now an open secret. So even as Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar issues denials about a secret meeting with Narendra Modi just months away from the Lok Sabha polls, other NCP leaders too are suddenly discovering the good side of the Gujarat chief minister.

The sudden appreciation of Modi’s administrative skills and capabilities by senior leaders like Praful Patel is being seen as attempts to cosy up to the NDA. Is it then that the NCP sees little hope for UPA-3 in 2014? No wonder the Shiv Sena was quick to respond. Sena leader Sanjay Raut was terse in his reaction: “Neither our doors nor our windows are open. There is no space for Sharad Pawar in the NDA.” While that may be clear, with the current anti-Congress mood in the country, there may be enough reason for the NCP to look for partners outside that party.

The rift between the Congress and the NCP in the state has been grabbing headlines for quite long now. Party sources confirm that the latter’s unease stems from the worry over the Congress’s likely poor performance in the 2014 general elections. For the NCP, the threat looming large this Lok Sabha poll is two-fold. One, the party stands to lose ground in the sugarcane belt of western Maharashtra, so far an NCP stronghold with the new found alliance of the BJP-Sena combine with the SSS. Pawar’s hold over the sugarcane belt has so far lent him political clout not just in Maharashtra but has even ensured him bargaining power at the Centre. With western Maharashtra slipping away, the NCP’s clout could well be gone.

Perhaps why the NCP chief is trying every trick to stay relevant in the state. It is for this reason, sources confirm, that Pawar is persuading his reluctant state heavyweig­hts to quit ministerial posts and contest the LS polls. As party chief, Pawar has to be in contention in national politics post-elections and for that the NCP needs to win enough LS seats in 2014. While the Congress believes that the NCP’s popularity has nose-dived due to the corruption charges against almost all its ministers, Pawar hasn’t given up on being a kingmaker if the 2014 polls throws up a hung Parliament.

There is of course the view that the NCP’s flirtations with the BJP are nothing more than an attempt to change the seat-sharing equation with the Congress in the state. In 2009, of the 48 LS seats from Maharashtra, the Congress contested 26, leaving the NCP with a slightly lesser share of 22. This Lok Sabha polls, Pawar hopes to change not just that equation but clearly a lot more.