Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s three-day Kolhapur tour last week saw bonhomie between him and Swabhimani Paksha leader and MP Raju Shetti, leading to rumours about new alliances against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before elections.
During a closed-door meet, Mr. Shetti reportedly invited Mr. Pawar to join him in another farmers’ protest on November 29-30 against the Modi government’s “anti-famer” policies in New Delhi.
Mr. Pawar has allegedly backed Mr. Shetti’s candidature from the Hatkanangale Lok Sabha constituency in Kolhapur for the 2019 Parliamentary election. The move, however, has upset candidates within the NCP as well as the Congress in the Kolhapur-Sangli belt.
Mr. Shetti, a two-time MP from Hatkanangale, was a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally, who exited from the NDA in August last year. After winning the Shirol Assembly seat as an Independent in 2004, he trumped the NCP’s MP Nivedita Mane to win the Hatkanangale Lok Sabha constituency in Kolhapur in the 2009 Parliamentary poll. He defeated former Congress MP Kallapa in the 2014 Parliamentary election.
“Ms. Mane and Mr. Awade have expressed their disapproval to Mr. Pawar in person over backing Mr. Shetti for the Hatkanangale seat,” said an NCP leader from Kolhapur.
Before the last Parliamentary election, Mr. Shetti had hoped that allying with the BJP would help shake off Mr. Pawar’s yoke from the sugar belt.
In February, Mr. Shetti had met Mr. Pawar in New Delhi. Mr. Shetti has launched milk blockades against the State BJP government and cranked up the pressure on sugar mill owners by demanding they pay up due arrears to farmers.
A parallel rift within his own party ultimately led to the ouster of his one-time close aide, Sadabhau Khot from the Swabhimani Paksha in August last year. Mr. Khot, who is Minister of State (MoS) for Agriculture and Marketing in the Devendra Fadnavis-led cabinet, floated his own outfit, the ‘Rayat Kranti Sanghatana’ in Kolhapur. He has already announced his candidature for the Hatkanangale Lok Sabha seat.