Sharad Pawar back to drawing board after losing NCP to Ajit, braces for toughest battle at 83

At 83, Sharad Pawar is facing a new challenge in his political career spanning over six decades to rebuild his party again. However, unlike the past when he fought many a battle against his political rivals, this time the gauntlet has been thrown by his nephew and ex-protege Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister in the NDA-led Maharashtra government.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission (EC) declared Ajit-led NCP group as the “real” NCP, handing it both the party’s original name and its symbol “clock”.

While giving its ruling, the EC asked Pawar-led NCP faction to suggest a list of three preferences for its name for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra. On Wednesday, accepting the faction’s first preference, the EC allotted it the name, “Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar”.

It is another matter that Pawar is the founder of the NCP, with Ajit rebelling against him to cross over to the NDA in July 2023 along with his group of party leaders and legislators.

The question doing the rounds in the state political circles is, will Pawar succeed in reconstituting and revamping his party again.

With his political skills and unrelenting work, Pawar has continued to remain a key figure at the centre-stage of Maharashtra politics for decades. Even his detractors acknowledge his “never say die attitude” and are not willing to write him off. As they track his next moves, a common refrain among them is, “Pawar may be down, but not out yet”.

Pawar is gearing up for one of the toughest battles of his career now. With the Lok Sabha polls round the corner, he has barely a couple of months to reinvent his party. He will also have to mount an aggressive statewide outreach to secure public approval for his party’s new