NCP succession plan: Big meeting scheduled for Friday

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, May 4

Fifty-three-year old Supriya Sule, a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Baramati, leads the race for the next chief of Nationalist Congress Party should her father and the incumbent party president choose to stick to his decision of stepping down from the top organisation role.

The committee Pawar constituted to chalk out a succession plan will meet on Friday to take a call, with sources indicating that the panel will first propose Sharad Pawar to stay, and if he declines then suggest a lifelong role for him while most likely choosing his daughter as his successor.

The former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar would probably stay out of a national NCP role and would have to wait for his time to become the party’s chief ministerial face in Maharashtra when the next elections come.

The committee featuring Sharad Pawar loyalists including Praful Patel, state unit chief Jayant Patel, national general secretary Jitendra Awhad, Sule and Ajit among others will meet at the NCP party office in Mumbai on Friday.

The change of guard in the party is expected any time soon, with the Maratha strongman having played another big card to prevent the NCP from splitting for now and probably also preventing it from going into the hands of leaders romancing the BJP on the sly.

Ajit Pawar’s dalliance with the BJP is well known by now, so are his chief ministerial ambitions.

What remains to be seen is how Ajit will react to a formal move at isolating him in attempts to scotch any potential plans to split the NCP founded in 1999.

A section of political observers say Ajit Pawar is hardly the one to be tamed and would wait and watch the situation as it unfolds.

The entire political game in Maharashtra could reopen depending on the outcome of the pending case in which the Supreme Court will decide if the rebellion within the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde amounts to defection under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

The five-judge Constitution Bench will decide whether the Speaker of a House can disqualify members, despite the members sending him a notice of removal.

In the event of the case going against Eknath Shinde, he may have to resign as CM.

That’s when Ajit Pawar could re-enter the big Maharashtra power game.