Raj Thackeray and Sharad Pawar: The state's struggling stalwarts

Their divergent views apart both Sharad Pawar and Raj Thackeray command in turns attention curiosity derision and criticism in equal measure But thatrsquos where the similarities end Their methods and politics are radically differentBoth Pawar and Raj appear to be struggling these days to consolidate their political positions with their parties standing at the crossroads While Pawar is not sure what lies in store for NCPrsquos troubled alliance with the Congress in the approaching Lok Sabha elections Thackeray isnrsquot sure either how the absence of any ally will work out for his partyLabelled a volatile unpredictable leader Pawar feels he cannot go along with Rahul Gandhi and has expressed his reservations about working under him Anticipating trouble Pawar decided to jump the gun and asked his party to start working on all the 22 Lok Sabha constituencies that NCP had contested from in the last election But Congressrsquo subsequent unwillingness to allocate these 22 seats to NCP came as a rude shock to the partyIt was only after his Man Friday Praful Patel warned Congress that all options were open to the party that the Congress responded and CM Prithviraj Chavan met him on Friday It can be safely said that Pawar has been feeling alienated in the UPA This growing insecurity was only compounded when the AICC issued a directive asking his party to get in touch with state Congress leaders Pawar and Patel were both caught offguard and were heard saying that the seatsharing formula had already been finalised in DelhiThe time has come for Pawar to take some tough decisions mdash whether to fight the next NCP elections alone or join forces with other antiCongress forces to float a new front While Patel met Chavan there have been reports that Pawar has also met Gujarat CM Narendra Modi secretly at New Delhi on January 17 It seems that Pawar is keeping all his options open and may play a major role in consolidating the Third Front along with Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal UnitedEven though NCP stands at an uncertain juncture Pawarrsquos sworn political enemies admit that he can upset any candidatersquos chances thanks to his clout and rapport with leaders across party lines He updates himself regularly on local politics His knowledge about caste religious equations and local issues is undisputable Using these skills he defeated Prithviraj Chavan in Karad back in 1999 after the seat had been won by Chavan and his parents before that for a record 10 times since 1957 But NCPrsquos fortunes turned when a series of scams revealed the involvement of some of the partyrsquos big guns in turn tainting the partyMNS chief Raj Thackeray who earlier expressed his admiration for Narendra Modi and the work he had done in Gujarat was considered the party most likely to tie up with BJP Shiv Sena or RPI in Maharashtra But his comment against Modi has dashed any hope of a tieup with BJP And any chance of his entry into the NDA is stiffly resisted by his cousin Shiv Sena chief Uddhav ThackerayWith the advent of the Aam Aadmi Party AAP on the political horizon Raj has lost the kind of attention he had been receiving for the past few years The fact that he is often incommunicado for his party workers and leaders seems to have made matters worse for MNS The cadre is now an unsure lot in the absence of any visible agenda for the partyWhispers have been heard that they often fail to get any concrete responses on particular issues from RajRealising this Raj recently flashed an old trump card in the form of a renewed agitation against toll collection to attract public attention But itrsquos a tad too late and nobody is convinced or enthused With the Shiv SenaBJP alliance getting stronger under the Mahayuti banner and AAP making a strong pitch in the state Raj has many forces to reckon with in the stateRaj respects Pawar and admires his political skill It will be interesting to watch how these two men fight their individual battles for survival in the days to comemdash The writer is Political Editor MiD DAY