Prabhakar Kulkarni
The political power game in Maharashtra is always played with strategic moves by the powerful Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar. He criticized the Congress Party earlier for its dynastic rule but while aligning with the Congress for gaining power at both the Centre and the state, he is following the same path of the dynastic rule, which seems to be one of the main aspects of the Congress culture. The Marathi print media which periodically hails and criticizes Mr.Pawar`s moves has now harped on his shrewdness in engineering the candidature of his only daughter Supriya Sule, while suggesting further currents in the internal power equations within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Maharasthra Times in its editorial `Power Kanya` (Power Daughter) has analyzed the way Mr.Pawar has defeated the Congress shrewdly both while electing Rahul Bajaj and now gaining the assured victory of his daughter Supriya Sule. The Congress faced the defeat in election fray against Mr.Bajaj whose victory was due the support of the Sena-BJP alliance. Now when the NCP has presented Supriya as candidate for the RS seat the Congress has to back the move, otherwise the Sena-BJP`s solid backing is the other alternative. The entrance of Supriya in the political arena has however raised the vital question of who is Mr.Pawar`s political heir and whether his cousin brother Ajit Pawar who was so far considered his heir is being sidetracked despite his political career of last eighteen years, comments the editorial.
The Shiva Sena` mouthpiece Samana has editorially disclosed their friendly family relations with Mr.Pawar and how Supriya, who has already worked for socio-economic uplift of the Dalits and nomadic tribes along with the Dalit leader Laxman Mane for the last ten years was the perfect choice for the political leadership. Incidentally Samana has also criticized the opportunistic secularism of the Congress, which criticized Mr.Pawar for aligning with the BJP-Sena while electing Rahul Bajaj but failed to dissociate with the NCP and sacrifice power in Maharasthra. The editorial urged Supriya to prove her mettle in her career in the Rajya Sabha. Lokasatta in its relevant news-feature has commented that the Congress has to back Supriya just to avoid second defeat the first being in the election against Rahul Bajaj,
Tarun Bharat of Belgaum has commented that Mr.Pawar has followed the Congress stalwart Pandit Nehru who brought his daughter Indira in the Congress while denying at the same time the dynastic rule. Similarly while the NCP minister Prafulla Patel has clarified that Supriya`s candidature is not enforced by Mr.Pawar but recommended by the NCP`s parliamentary body, the fact is clear that Mr. Pawar has sidetracked the three claimant for the seat namely Neelima Chavan wife of Vasant Chavan (due to whose death this seat remained vacant) and the NCP activists Y.P. Trivedi and Janardhan Waghmare. The editorial has also commented that Supriya`s entry into Maharashtra`s politics will be from Delhi where she would work for some time and then may grace the state leadership.
Lokamat`s editor of the Mumbai and Aurangabad editions Dinkar Raikar has in his special article entitled `Why Supriya?` questioned Mr.Pawar`s credibility in selecting his own daughter Supriya after criticizing throughout his political career Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi for their dynastic rule in Indian politics. Mr. Pawar`s normal strategy to say one thing and do another is exposed once again as he was denying Supriya`s entry into the Rajya Sabha saying that she needed some work experience in the party but actually pushed up her for the RS seat. The daily Samaj of Kolhapur in its editorial has endorsed Supriya`s entry in the political arena and ruled out any possibility of any threat to Ajit Pawar`s leadership in Maharashtra.