Sharad Pawar's resignation: NCP clout runs deep in Maharashtra local bodies, sugar mills & market panels

PUNE/NASHIK/KOLHAPUR: NCP has lost its national party status, but the party is in a formidable position across the state, especially in the rural areas of western and north Maharashtra, parts of Marathwada and Konkan.
In the past 24 years since its formation, the party has prepared a strong base and groomed a second rung leadership. It won 53 seats in the 288-member legislative assembly election in 2019 to emerge as the third largest party in Maharashtra.

However, after the Shiv Sena that had 55 seats split up, it is now in second position after the BJP.
Its leader Ajit Pawar, who has voiced his aspirations to be the CM, is currently the leader of the opposition. Ajit has a strong grip over local civic bodies in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad. But the BJP won both civic polls in 2017. He is the party's most prominent face in Pune region and had campaigned actively for the assembly bypolls in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad.
NCP clout runs deep in civic bodies, sugar mills, APMCs
Baramati, the Pawar family's bastion, which Ajit represents in the assembly and Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule represents in the Lok Sabha, falls in Pune which is part of western Maharashtra, the state's sugar bowl.
State president Jayant Patil in Sangli and Shashikant Shinde in Satara are the other big political players in this region.
Though the Nationalist Congress Party has suffered setbacks with several prominent leaders joining BJP since 2014, it has the maximum local bodies under its control in Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur districts.
In political circles, Sharad Pawar has an unwritten rule of starting a political campaign for Lok Sabha and assembly elections from Kolhapur.
Former deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal controls market committees and municipal councils in rural Nashik. Similarly, former health minister Rajesh Tope dominates Jalna politics and Jitendra Awhad holds sway in Thane. All three are NCP strongmen.
Their hold was visible in the victories of their panels in the agriculture produce market committees, last week. NCP has registered consecutive wins in the graduates' constituency and teachers' constituency in Marathwada.
In north Maharashtra, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts have been NCP citadels. The party does not have a strong presence in Nashik city but has considerable influence in Ahmednagar city.
The party joined hands with BJP to come to power in Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation in 2019 and kept the undivided Shiv Sena, which had 24 seats, the highest number, out of power.
In the Zilla Parishad elections too, NCP had won 15 seats in Nashik and 20 in Ahmednagar.
"NCP's solid support base in districts like Nashik, Ahmednagar and even in Jalgaon is because of Sharad Pawar's efforts. It is precisely why the rank and file is taken aback by his announcement to relinquish the party president's post," Ahmednagar district NCP president Rajendra Phalke said.
According to other NCP leaders, the party backed panels won elections in seven of the 13 APMCs in the district. Similarly, in Jalgaon.
The panels backed by Maha Vikas Aghadi trounced Shiv Sena (Ekanth Shinde faction) in four of the APMCs. The panels of three Shiv Sena MLAs, including guardian minister Gulabrao Patil, were defeated by NCP in the four APMCs in the district.
Prakash Pawar, professor and head of department of political science of Shivaji University in Kolhapur, said Sharad Pawar has performed the role of a binder in his party and glued political alliances.
"Many defections of top NCP leaders did not happen because of his clout. He brought Uddhav Thackeray and Sonia Gandhi together. The MVA experiment will not sail through without him for the upcoming elections," he added.
He said Prafulla Patel and Supriya Sule could lead the party. "Anyone who replaces Pawar should know national politics well as even though NCP is not a national party. It is a strong regional party that holds national importance," he added.
(With inputs from Prasad Joshi in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar)