Miffed over denial of RS, LS bids, Bhujbal flexes muscle, sets off a churn in Ajit Pawar NCP

Several recent moves of Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, a senior leader of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), have led to talks that his discontent within the ruling Mahayuti alliance is growing.

Bhujbal has defended NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) MLA Jitendra Awhad for accidentally tearing a poster with a photo of B R Ambedkar while protesting against the Eknath Shinde-led state government’s proposal for inclusion of Manusmriti verses in the school curriculum. The BJP and even the NCP (Ajit Pawar) have gone after Awhad over the incident.

Earlier, while campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls, Bhujbal said that there was a “sympathy wave” for NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray across Maharashtra.

Once known as Sharad Pawar’s trusted aide, Bhujbal’s joining hands with his nephew Ajit last year had upset Pawar so much that he chose to hold one of his first rallies after the NCP’s split in Bhujbal’s Assembly constituency Yeola in Nasik district. A defiant Bhujbal, who had then bitterly criticised Pawar, seems to have changed his tone significantly over the last year, and is now increasingly taking a stance that is at odds with his party as well as the Mahayuti government despite being a cabinet minister.

It all started with the Maratha quota agitation launched in September 2023 by activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, demanding Kunbi (OBC) status for Marathas. The agitation quickly spread like wildfire, especially in the state’s Marathwada region. Bhujbal, who belongs to the Mali OBC caste, vocally opposed the demand. Despite being a minister, he led counter rallies of the OBC community, and even criticised the government for acceding to Jarange-Patil’s demands.

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