Prafulla Marpakwar and Shailesh Gaikwad tell you why the Congress
needs Pawar. Why the BJP wanted Pawar. And why the Sena didn't





For the first seven days of 2004, Mumbai saw a monumental game of
bluff. The stakes were high — when Lok Sabha elections and even
assembly elections seem only weeks away, they don't get higher. The
practitioners were the golden city's Big Daddies — Sharad Pawar and
Bal Thackeray. There was murk and fog, information and
disinformation, hardball and harder bargain. In the end, it all left
one man looking very silly — Pawar.

President of the Nationalist Congress Party, former chief minister
of Maharashtra, former defence minister of India, Pawar has a CV
worth of envy. This past week, he also displayed a remarkable gift
for shooting himself in the foot. He's Maharashtra's most sought-
after ally for both the Congress and the BJP; paradoxically he's
also painted himself into a corner.

It's extraordinary. Just how did he achieve this? Here's the story
of the week that almost changed the Maratha Strongman ... to the
Maratha Strawman.



It goes back to the day when deputy prime minister and BJP leader
L.K. Advani flew to Mumbai to meet Thackeray and sound out the Shiv
Sena supremo on an early general election. Details of the confab
were duly leaked to the media and the balloon floated that Pawar and
the NCP would join the BJP-Sena partnership, making it a sort of
anti-Congress axis.

Since the NCP and Congress run the coalition that now rules
Maharashtra, to Sonia Gandhi's party — not to speak of half the NCP —
this seemed a decidedly off-colour joke. Pawar saw red, went into a
blue funk, muttered something about yellow journalism. In good
politico style, he denied everything.

IN-HOUSE RUMBLE


Split the Shiv Sena years ago to join Pawar. Was deputy CM in the
state government till Telgi claimed him. Hates Thackeray but may now
be a Pawar vulnerability




Until Thackeray broke the code of silence. The Sena chief publicly
admitted he had discussed Pawar's entry into the NDA with Advani.
Pawar was now in a soup, meekly admitting that ``all options were
open for the NCP'', no longer ruling out nuptials with the NDA.

Finally, Thackeray changed his mind. On January 7, he told
journalists there was no place for the NCP in the joint front in
Maharashtra. Pawar's people were back to cooking up explanations.

Trusted aide and NCP spokesman Praful Patel was suitably
perturbed. ``Sharad Pawar is a misunderstood politician,'' Patel
explained, ``it is unfortunate he is being dragged into the
political controversy.'' Patel admitted the NDA was looking for
allies but insisted, ``We will not succumb to their pressure.''.

The post facto reasoning may convince some but it doesn't convince
Sanjay Nirupam. Take a quick look, says this Shiv Sena MP, at the
statements issued by Pawar over the past week: he sounds confused.
Nirupam can get harsher, ``In my opinion, he is one of the most
dishonest politicians. More than a decade ago, he had engineered a
split in the Shiv Sena and now, he is knocking on our doors to share
power.''

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