‘Uddhav Thackeray needs political acumen’: Sharad Pawar in autobiography
2 min read . Updated: 03 May 2023, 07:26 AM IST
PremiumSharad Pawar's revised Marathi autobiography `Lok Maze Sangati' (People Accompany Me) touches upon events post-2015 when the first edition of the book was published.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray failed to quell the discontent within his own party and resigned as Maharashtra chief minister without putting up a fight, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar said in the revised version of his autobiography released on Tuesday.
He and others also sensed a lack of political deftness in Thackeray, something which a chief minister needs, Pawar said as quoted by news agency PTI.
In the book, Pawar wrote that the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of the Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena was not just a "power game" but a strong riposte to the Bharatiya Janata Party's tendency to finish off the importance of other political parties by hook or by crook.
"It was expected that there would be attempts to destabilize the MVA government, but "we did not anticipate that there would be a storm within the Shiv Sena due to Uddhav Thackeray becoming chief minister," he said.
"The Sena leadership fell short in quelling this outburst of discontent. As Uddhav resigned without putting up a fight (after Eknath Shinde and other Sena MLAs rebelled against him in June 2022), the MVA's stint in power came to an end," he added.
The NCP leader noted that a chief minister needs "political acumen" and must remain well-informed about political goings-on, and “we all felt that these things were lacking", PTI reported.
He attributed it to Thackeray's inexperience. While the middle class liked Thackeray's interaction with the people through Facebook Live during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was difficult to fathom why he chose to visit the Mantralaya, the government's headquarters, only twice during this period, Pawar wrote.
Sharad Pawar's revised Marathi autobiography `Lok Maze Sangati' (People Accompany Me) touches upon events post-2015 when the first edition of the book was published.
(With PTI inputs)