In NCP Control Fight, Sharad Pawar Camp Sees A Katappa-Baahubali Parallel

New Delhi:

As veteran politician Sharad Pawar goes all-out in the fight to retain control over the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), his supporters have tagged his nephew Ajit Pawar a “traitor” and said the people will not forgive him.

Posters put up by Pawar senior’s camp outside his Delhi residence have drawn a parallel between Ajit Pawar’s move to take control of the party and the epic betrayal in blockbuster movie Baahubali, in which Katappa, the closest companion of the protagonist, stabs him from behind.

“The whole country is watching traitors hidden among one’s own. The public won’t forgive such fraud people,” the poster read, with silhouettes from the Baahubali poster tweaked to make the figures resemble Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar. The poster, put up by NCP’s student wing, does not name anyone and mentions “gaddar” — meaning traitor — with a hashtag.  

Following two mega meetings in Mumbai yesterday, where the two camps flaunted the MLAs supporting them, Sharad Pawar will be holding a meeting of the party’s working committee in Delhi today to plan their next move.

The rival camp led by his nephew has approached the Election Commission for the party’s name and symbol, claiming that the majority of the party’s legislators back Ajit Pawar. The Sharad Pawar camp had earlier asked the poll body not to move on the rival camp’s communications, stressing that the 83-year-old leader continues to be at the helm.

At the Ajit Pawar camp’s meeting yesterday, 32 out of the 53 MLAs of NCP turned up. Fourteen MLAs were at Pawar senior’s meeting.

The meetings saw both camps hitting out at each other. While Ajit Pawar said his uncle is 83 now and needs to take a backseat, his cousin and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule said that if Ratan Tata and Amitabh Bachchan can keep working, what bars the senior politician from leading his party.

The tussle for NCP’s control follows dramatic developments over the past few days, starting with Sunday when Ajit Pawar and eight other party MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde government in a sudden ceremony.