The different colours of Mahayuti

Ajit Pawar has locked horns with his saffron partners over pro-Muslim posturing. File Pic/Atul Kamble

Ajit Pawar's ‘pink' refuses to blend with ‘saffron'. BJP's new ally has been making a serious effort to retain its own colour as a secular party that plans to field a significant number of Muslim candidates in the forthcoming Assembly elections. Information says that the Muslim nominees' number could be 10 per cent of Ajit Pawar NCP's total contestants. Pawar is assured of getting four seats in Mumbai for which he has Muslim candidates ready, barring just one. The deputy chief minister in the BJP-Sena-NCP government has tried to reestablish his pro-Muslim credentials by severely criticising the state NDA leaders for their anti-Muslim rant. Last week, he shared a public platform with CM Eknath Shinde and Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis to air his strong views about the ‘verbose', who, according to him, were creating a difficult situation for the CM and Mahayuti constituents. Pawar's expression also came at a time when Shinde Sena's MLA and BJP's Rajya Sabha member had courted controversy over their remarks about Rahul Gandhi.

NCP's minister Dhanajay Munde later confirmed that Pawar had expressed his strong concern to BJP's top brass, including Amit Shah. In response, the generator of objectionable remarks stated that Pawar could complain wherever he wanted to. He also questioned the NCP chief's silence over the act of stone pelting at the Ganesh visarjan processions. Dy CM Fadnavis feigned ignorance about Pawar's complaint to the BJP's top leadership, but said that the MLA was a Hindutva leader and his statements were misconstrued sometimes. He added that he and the MLA's MP father had discussed the issue with the youth leader.

It is not the first time that Pawar has locked horns with his saffron partners over pro-Muslim posturing. He persisted with Nawab Malik, a Mumbai MLA, who sided with him after NCP's split. Pawar was told by BJP to stay away from Malik, who is out on bail in a money laundering case linked to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Shunning BJP suggestions, Pawar has not only kept Malik close to his heart, but he will also be fielding him in Mumbai's Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency against Samajwadi Party's three-time MLA Abu Azmi. Not just Malik, his daughter Sana is expected to be Pawar's nominee from Anushakti Nagar, where her father reigns at present.

For Bandra East, Pawar has a sitting MLA Zeeshan Siddique, an import from the Congress. Pawar is likely to get Mumbadevi too, but he hasn't got a suitable candidate for it yet. It is learnt that NCP had made a generous offer to a former Congress MLA to contest against Amin Patel (Congress), but he denied the deal. Patel has been unbeatable in Mumbadevi since 2009. Away from Mumbai, Pawar may field Najeeb Mulla in Thane's Kalwa-Mumbra against rival faction's Jitendra Awhad. Pawar has also set his eyes on some segments in the rest of Maharashtra for Muslim candidates. His ministerial colleague Hasan Mushrif has been challenged by Samarjeet Ghatge (ex-BJP, now with NCP-Sharad Pawar) in Kagal near Kolhapur. We will know about the remaining Muslim seats soon.

Pawar's moves and expressions notwithstanding, Fadnavis had said recently that NDA's new partner would need more time to gel well with the colour of Hindutva, but added that he had seen the beginning of transformation when Pawar had led his pack of MLAs and MPs to Prabhadevi's Siddhivinayak temple (to ceremoniously start a state-wide campaign that has a backdrop coloured in pink). "Have you ever seen Ajit-dada doing such a thing before?" Fadnavis had responded to a query.

In his post-2019 MVA avatar, Uddhav Thackeray assumed a new identity of a pro-Muslim party as he distinguished his Hindutva from the BJP's. The Muslim sentiment worked in his party's favour in a city by-poll and later in the Lok Sabha elections as his rival Shinde faction adopted hardcore Hindutva. Now it's Ajit Pawar's turn to see whether he benefits or not.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore
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