Pawar Politics in Play

Sharad Pawar has always been a difficult ally of the Congress. With the timing of his moves, which could upset the coalition arithmetic in the Government, Pawar has got Congressmen peeved.

Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party Chief Sharad Pawar’s move asking the Prime Minister to reduce his ministerial burden could not have come at a worse time for the Congress. “I have met the Prime Minister today and asked him to reduce my burden. I want to devote time to my party work,”  Pawar told journalists shortly after meeting Dr Manmohan Singh on 5 July, a day that the united opposition had chosen to hold country-wide protests against spiralling prices, largely that of food commodities.

Pawar walked up to the PM’s residence saying he had too much on his plate. Since 2004, he has headed the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and PDS. And Congressmen are offended by the choice of his timing to ask for the change. “He should’ve realised that his public statement seeking a reduction in his portfolios would embarrass the Prime Minister and the UPA that he is part of. This so-called burden on him has existed for over six years now, and by saying it is too much to handle, he is giving the opposition a chance to say that the working of the ministries has not been up to the mark under both UPA I and II. It is, in a sense, an admission of failure,” one of Pawar’s Cabinet colleagues from the Congress tells Open.

The buzz in Congress circles currently is that Pawar is trying to create space in the Government for his daughter Supriya Sule. 

A day after Pawar met the PM, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel too made a similar demand: that his portfolio be changed. After this, the party clarified it would want to retain the portfolio that Pawar sheds. And then, two days later, the NCP said it was working towards cobbling a third front to politically challenge both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The front, it said, will be called the Secular Democratic Front (SDF) and will tie up with political parties in different states. 

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has made his plans within the party clear: the more seats the Congress bags in the 2014 general election, the less it would have to depend on problematic or moody allies. Within the Congress, the NCP’s talk of a third alternative is being seen as a counter to Rahul’s plans in the long run and a bargaining tool for better or more portfolios in the current context. 

With nine MPs, the NCP is bargaining right now for one more cabinet berth. It also has two ministers of state in the government. 

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