Tag: successor

Sharad Pawar has failed to create successor who can take NCP forward: Shiv Sena (UBT)

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Mumbai: Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) on Monday claimed Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has failed to create a successor who could take his party forward.
An editorial in Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana also claimed the jumbo committee set up to decide on the new president of NCP after Pawar announced his decision to step down included some members who were keen to go with the ruling BJP. But these members were compelled to ask Pawar to continue due to pressure from NCP cadres, it said.
Notably, the Thackeray-led faction is one of the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) along with the NCP and Congress.

“Sharad Pawar is like an old banyan tree in politics who had left the Congress party, founded NCP, and expanded it. Pawar is indeed an important figure in national politics and his words command respect. However, he has failed to create a successor who could take his party forward,” the editorial said.
This was reflected when Pawar announced his resignation as NCP chief, which left many (leaders) shattered to their core, it said.
“Pawar has a fair idea of people around him and their intentions. Pawar had said he would not stop those (leaders) who want to leave NCP. It (the announcement of resignation and its withdrawal which galvanised party cadres) means those who wanted to defect have temporarily suspended their plans,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) said.
The Saamana claimed the pressure mounted by NCP cadres compelled the jumbo committee set up to decide on the new president of NCP to ask Pawar to continue in the position.
Sharad Pawar last Friday decided to rescind his decision to resign as NCP chief, heeding to pleas of party leaders and cadres, three days after he announced his decision to step down.

The editorial has evoked a stinging reaction from NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal who rebuked Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, the executive editor of Saamana, which is published in Marathi and Hindi languages.
“Uddhav Thackeray has already clarified what Sharad Pawar has written in his autobiography ‘Lok Majhe Sangati’. Thackeray had said he didn’t want to create any problems in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Why is Sanjay Raut doing this? What is his problem? Does he think that the NCP shall leave the MVA? Sharad Pawar Saheb has done politics for years equal to your age,” Bhujbal said in Nashik.
He said there are capable leaders like Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule and Jayant Patil in the MVA who can ably handle whatever responsibilities assigned to them.
The editorial also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
“The BJP is calling Pawar’s resignation a political farce. But it should look at its own leader Narendra Modi who is world famous for farcical behaviour. The BJP is the only party that doesn’t wish anything good to happen in other political parties,” it said.
The current BJP is formed by breaking and wrecking other political parties in the country, it alleged.
“Pawar returning to head the NCP has not only re-energised that party, but several Opposition parties in the country also felt relieved. Those who are getting ready to join the BJP should first answer the question of whether they want to live for 100 days like a lamb or one day like a tiger,” the editorial asked.
The Saamana further said people will end the political careers of those leaders who will defect and join the BJP.
“No matter how big a lieutenant is, joining BJP is like inviting trouble,” it said.
Without taking names, the editorial claimed the leaders who had ditched Shiv Sena are facing a worse situation than that of a dog living on a pile of garbage.
“There is not an iota of morality left in the BJP. People can join the BJP under the threat of ED or CBI but the sword will continue to hang on their heads for the rest of their life,” it said.
The Pawar saga also means that leaders do not represent a political party, but its workers do, it said.
“When hoards of party workers gathered outside Pawar’s residence and the party office, it gave a clear message. After Eknath Shinde’s rebellion, Shiv Sena witnessed the same thing. MLAs and MPs left Shiv Sena but party workers are still with the original Sena,” the Saamana said.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 8, 2023
Key NCP committee to meet today to take a call on Sharad Pawar’s successor

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Mumbai: A committee of the Nationalist Congress Party will meet at 11 am today to decide on who will head the NCP next, days after party chief Sharad Pawar announced that he would be stepping down from the top position.
The committee was set up by 82-year-old Pawar to pick his successor and it includes Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, former Union leader Parful Patel and Bhujbal.
Pawar on Thursday said his decision to step down from the post was taken for the future of the party and to create a new leadership amid continued demand from party workers that he reconsiders his decision.

NCP leaders, on condition of anonymity, said Baramati Lok Sabha MP and Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule is likely to be the party’s national chief while Ajit Pawar will take charge of the Maharashtra unit.
As per party leaders, the mantle of NCP chief is likely to remain within the Pawar family as giving the reins to someone from outside may lead to rifts and power tussles in the outfit formed in 1999.
These leaders asserted Sule, a three-term LS MP, had established herself as an effective parliamentarian and has contacts with leaders of parties across the political spectrum, whereas Ajit Pawar has a good hold over the state unit and is widely acknowledged as an able administrator.
Moreover, these leaders added that Ajit Pawar had recently spoken about his chief ministerial dreams, while Sule has always said national politics interests her.
Incidentally, senior NCP leader and former state minister Chhagan Bhujbal had said Sule should take up the party’s national mantle and Ajit Pawar must head the state unit, though the MLA from Yeola in Nashik was quick to add that this was his personal opinion.

Speaking outside the Y B Chavan Centre in the city, where his supporters have been camping to demand his continuation as the party chief, Pawar said on Thursday he would take a final decision in the next couple of days and the sentiments of party workers will not be ignored.
“I respect your sentiments. I should have discussed my plans with all of you and taken you into confidence. But I know you wouldn’t have allowed me to take the decision (of stepping down as party chief),” the former Union minister told his supporters.
He said some party colleagues from outside Maharashtra will meet him on Friday to discuss the issue. “I will take a final decision in one or two days,” Pawar said.
As emotions ran high among his supporters, Pawar tried to pacify them outside the YB Chavan Centre.
The party cadres gathered at the place urged Pawar to appoint a working president of the party, while he himself should continue in the post.
Some of them said Pawar should helm the party at least till 2024 as the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are due, while others said if he did not reconsider his decision, they would resort to a hunger strike.
Pawar on Tuesday sprang a surprise by announcing his decision to quit as president of the party he founded and headed since 1999 when he left the Congress to chart his own political course.
The announcement, made at an event, stumped leaders and workers of the 24-year-old party.
Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP and one of the stalwarts of the Opposition, had said he was stepping down as NCP chief but was not retiring from public life.
The announcement came amid speculation that Ajit Pawar and some MLAs may join hands with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, though the former deputy chief minister has refuted such talk by claiming he will be with the NCP till he is alive.
According to party sources, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin of the DMK spoke to Sule over phone to enquire about developments in the NCP following Tuesday’s announcement.
While Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Congress have maintained the developments in the NCP will not affect the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which comprises the three parties, political observers said a lot would depend on what Ajit Pawar does after the Supreme Court verdict, likely in a couple of days, on petitions related to the toppling of the Thackeray government in June last year.
These observers also added Ajit Pawar was unlikely to switch sides as developments since Tuesday have shown the NCP was firmly with Sharad Pawar and the former was unlikely to get the numbers to effectively split the party.
Speaking on the future of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Maharashtra Congress vice president Ratnakar Mahajan said the current situation was “complex and unpredictable”.
“But, all the three constituents of the MVA would stay together in the light of results of recent polls,” Mahajan said.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 5, 2023
‘Meet Kalam’: Former PM Narsimha Rao’s parting message to successor Vajpayee

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New Delhi: As former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao left office in 1996, he handed over a slip to his successor Atal Bihari Vajpayee which read, “Kalam se miliye (meet Kalam)”.
The new prime minister did not know who Kalam was. After he found out, the then chief scientific advisor and secretary, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) APJ Abdul Kalam was called for a meeting, which would pave the way for Pokhran II nuclear tests in 1998, according to author Arun Shourie, a former minister in the Vajpayee-led government.
Shourie shared this interesting anecdote on the concluding day of the Times LitFest here on Sunday.
“When the Narasimha Rao government fell and Atal ji came to office, Atal ji told us that Rao handed him a slip reading ‘Kalam se miliye’. Vajpayee wondered who Kalam was. Then he found out and Kalam was called,” Shourie said.
When Vajpayee told Kalam about the slip, he told the prime minister that the message had to do with nuclear testing, which Rao had approved during his tenure but had to stop due to “American pressure”, according to Shourie.
“Kalam told Atal ji, ‘sir, we were ready to do a test of the atomic weapon, but we were stopped because of American pressure and various other things that had happened. He (Rao) wants you to resume this… it would take us a month to conduct the test’,” the former Union minister said.
Vajpayee asked Kalam, who would go on to become the 11th President of India, to start work immediately.
However, before the plan could take shape, Vajpayee’s government fell in just 13 days.

“I remember Atal ji walking back from Lok Sabha into his chamber and he said ‘we lost by one vote’ … Kalam walked in and said, ‘sir, you will come back and we will do it,’” recalled Shourie.
And that’s exactly what happened. The BJP came back to power in March 1998 and Vajpayee once again became the prime minister of India.
At around 3:45 PM on May 11, 1998, India tested three devices — a thermonuclear device (Shakti I), a fission device (Shakti II), and a sub-kiloton device (Shakti III).
Two days later, the country detonated two more sub-kiloton devices — Shakti IV and V.
India had successfully tested its first nuclear bomb in Rajasthan’s Pokhran on May 18, 1974 under the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Code-named ‘Smiling Buddha’, the Ministry of External Affairs had characterised the test as a “peaceful nuclear explosion”.
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#Meet #Kalam #Narsimha #Raos #parting #message #successor #Vajpayee
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 12, 2023