Gopichand Padalkar doggedly going after Ajit Pawar is making for interesting optics in Maharashtra politics. BJP’s Padalkar had contested the last Assembly elections against Ajit Pawar and lost by a huge margin. Since then he has sharpened his attacks on NCP’s first family – Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule and Rohit Pawar.
Padalkar has not spared Ajit Pawar despite the latter breaking ranks with uncle Sharad Pawar and joining the Eknath Shinde-BJP government earlier this year. This is not surprising given the acrid history shared by the two leaders.
Padalkar, who is the Dhangar face of the BJP, was inducted into the party to mainly target the Pawars. He is vocal about reservation for OBCs and the Dhangar community and is of the opinion that the Pawar family has been playing the politics of caste for its own benefit. He has said as much openly, naming Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar and Supriya Sule.
In the 2019 Maharashtra elections, to break the monopoly of the Pawar family in Baramati politics, Padalkar contested on the seat against Ajit Pawar, but had to suffer a defeat. Fuelled by the loss, he intensified his criticism of the Pawars and the BJP rewarded him with a nomination for the Legislative Council seat.
It was hoped that Padalkar would not target Ajit Pawar, who was made the deputy chief minister immediately after joining the government, since that would suggest cracks in the Shinde-BJP alliance. But the BJP leader has done just the opposite.
A few days ago, Padalkar wrote a letter on the issue of Dhangar reservation to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and had also addressed it to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, but didn’t address the same to Ajit Pawar.
Asked by reporters about the omission, Padalkar called Ajit Pawar a “wolf” and implied he and his loyalists don’t recognise the latter’s position in the alliance and government.
The episode blew up when Ajit Pawar supporters from Pune district blackened Padalkar’s posters and threatened to beat him up if he enters the district. Ajit Pawar played down the controversy and told his supporters not to pay heed to the BJP leader’s words. Fadnavis then reprimanded Padalkar for criticising the alliance partner.
But Padalkar has refused to pedal back. “His (Ajit Pawar’s) feelings towards the Dhangar community are not clean. We don’t expect that he will be able to give justice to us, hence we don’t consider him and will never write a letter to him. We had written a letter seeking justice for Dhangar community to Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis as we have hopes from them.”
Quick to latch onto the issue, Supriya Sule asked if the BJP had inducted Ajit dada to “insult” him.
Padalkar received support from BJP leader Nitesh Rane, who shared a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“If allies criticising Ajit Pawar is seen as his insult, then how did you tolerate editorials against him by Sanjay Raut during the Maha Vikas Aghadi government? Who had given him blessings?” the MLA asked.
Will Padalkar’s continued attacks alter Ajit Pawar’s prospects in Baramati? Over to 2024…
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