'Dirty tricks': Opposition hits back at BJP after NCP split in Maharashtra

Ajit Pawar's decision to abandon his uncle Sharad Pawar and join the BJP prompted many Opposition leaders to call the NCP veteran

The sudden switchover of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar to the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has caused a rift in political circles, with leaders from Opposition parties calling party supremo Sharad Pawar to extend their support.

According to reports, those who called Pawar included Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

“Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi has spoken to Sharad Pawar over the phone and discussed the situation and extended support to him. Earlier Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi spoke to Sharad Pawar,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said.

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of orchestrating the split, Venugopal said the government was not an elected one, but an “Enforcement Directorate (ED)-facilitated power grab."

“The BJP’s dirty tricks department is working on overdrive in Maharashtra. This is not a legitimately elected government, but an ED-facilitated power grab. The Maharashtra government is a product of corruption and sin. The people have very well identified the traitors, corrupt and compromised leaders of Maharashtra and each of them will be taught the lessons of their lifetime in the next elections,” he said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, on the other hand, used the "washing machine" analogy to criticise the BJP, claiming that corrupt leaders have now been given a clean chit.

“Clearly the BJP’s washing machine has resumed its operation. A number of new entrants into the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra today had been facing serious corruption charges with ED, CBI and I-T authorities after them. Now they have all got a clean chit. The Congress will intensify its efforts to free Maharashtra from the clutches of the BJP,” Ramesh tweeted in Hindi.

He also questioned what kind of example of good governance the ruling party was attempting to set by making Ajit Pawar, against whom it had launched a corruption investigation.

TMC leader Derek O'Brien stated that the Opposition will fight and defeat the "traitors" and the BJP in 2024.

Several Opposition parties, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have stated that Ajit Pawar does not have the same clout as Sharad Pawar and that the party will survive the split as cadres will not support the former.

“The Prime Minister may say a hundred things but what he actually wants is an Opposition-free democracy. Agencies like the ED, IT, CBI are used to ensure that political decisions are changed. Look at the ministers who took oath today. They were facing raids till the other day. It is a testimony of the politics of the prime minister and the priorities of his party,” RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha told the Indian Express.

Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of trying to retain power at the expense of the poor, claiming that Maharashtra is just one of the saffron party's political "experiments" ahead of the 2024 elections.

Hitting out at the BJP for “engineering defections” when the country was in the midst of crises like that seen in Manipur, Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, however, exuded confidence that the latest development in Maharashtra is not enough to shake the Opposition unity.

“That will be there. This is their pastime. They have done it in Goa, in Madhya Pradesh, in Karnataka, in the North East,” Yechury said.

The defection of Ajit Pawar jeopardises the Opposition's unity months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra Assembly elections later next year.

The NCP was instrumental in uniting the Opposition to challenge the BJP government in the 2024 general elections. In fact, it was Pawar who made the announcement that the next Opposition meeting will be held in Bengaluru on July 13 and 14.

While Ajit Pawar, who was recently sworn in as Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister, claims that there is no split in the party and that a majority of MLAs support the Eknath Shinde government, the NCP has dismissed the claims, stating that the party is not supporting the BJP in any manner.