Pawar talks candid, all options open

It is not for nothing that over the years Nationalist Congress Party chief and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has acquired a reputation for being overtly practical and, generally, speaking his mind. This trait has not been overshadowed even when he has pushed his personal ambitions hard (such as when he sought to become Prime Minister, standing in competition to late P.V. Narasimha Rao, who had virtually rehabilitated him) — but without rancour — or sought to do deals with parties other than the Congress, from which he broke but with which he has now had a long-standing relationship, although not one free of frequent hiccups.

At a media interaction in Maharashtra on Wednesday, the senior leader injected a dose of realism into election-time hyperbole and propaganda as he observed that the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to emerge as the single largest party but the NDA will fall short of the halfway mark. Mr Pawar’s candid assessment places the Congress in the second spot. What he has failed — or declined — to suggest is that a host of possibilities might open up in the political universe if the number one party does not have the steam to cross the 50 per cent mark.

Many would, naturally, note the Nationalist Congress Party leader’s assurance to the Congress that he will continue to be in alliance with it even after the election, and that the NDA was, for him, not an option.  Going a step further, Mr Pawar has disclosed that as many as eight Shiv Sena MPs have been in talks with his party and the Congress, and were just waiting to switch sides.

If this is disinformation, we cannot know at this stage. But what it does possibly mean is the expansion of the non-Congress, non-BJP bloc of MPs, several of whom may be open to do business with the United Progressive Alliance (depending on how they have fared in the election) in case the National Democratic Alliance loses its drawing power if it falls short of the needed 50 per cent. Mr Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party sticking with the UPA can conceivably enhance the pull factor.

This top gun from Maharashtra, even if his shadow does not loom as large over that state’s politics as it used to, is among the few remaining quasi-footloose players on the national stage who can reach out with equanimity in many directions. Politics is undoubtedly about hard power, but it is also an art with strong doses of the science of chemistry thrown in.

Mr Pawar has been candid. He looks to have no hesitation saying that the Congress is coming up second. That’s no betrayal in today’s circumstances. The unstated element of the NCP supremo’s observation is that the canvas is still unfolding.