There has been a lot of debate recently around the office of the UPA chairperson. Currently that post is being held by Sonia Gandhi, but given the fact that she wants to take a step back from active politics, there is speculation as to who should succeed her. Since the Congress is the single largest pan-India party in this block of anti-BJP parties, it is only natural that the UPA chairperson should be from the Congress. However, when you take into account the leadership crisis within the Congress, where it cannot even find a party president to replace Sonia, that vacancy opens up beyond the Congress. And the first person to throw his hat into the ring is NCP leader and ex-Congressman Sharad Pawar.
Certainly Pawar is the tallest leader amongst the non-BJP allies. He also has a good equation with most regional chieftains cutting across party lines from Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, the Abdullahs, M.K. Stalin and even fence-sitters like Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and Navin Patnaik. Within the Congress too, the old guard—and some members of the G23—would be happy to see Pawar take the lead. Already in a post Ahmed Patel Congress there is a faction that is feeling at odds with Rahul Gandhi’s team, and therein comes the rub. What if Pawar would not limit his ambitions to just UPA chairperson but also make a bid to break the Congress? Apart from the disgruntled old guard, he would be able to woo back former Congress leaders such as Mamata and Jagan back into the fold. But, what is working against the 80-year-old Pawar is his own health and the age factor. He doesn’t have time on his side to pull off a coup of this magnitude. What he can pull off, however, would be the UPA chairmanship.
There have been precedents where an alliance is headed by someone not belonging to the largest party. N.T. Rama Rao was the chairperson of the National Front despite the fact that the TDP wasn’t the single-largest party in the grouping; George Fernandes had been the convener of the NDA during the Vajpayee era and so on. So, Pawar not only has the ability, he also has a case. In fact since the Congress is the only pan-India party in the UPA, it is constantly negotiating regional alliances at the state level with the UPA partners. And there it faces a contradiction; for as Congress president, Sonia Gandhi has had to ensure that the party gets the best deal, but as the UPA chairperson she has to ensure that the seats are shared in a manner that is best placed to beat the BJP. And this is not always in the Congress favour. Take the example of Bihar, if the Congress had contested less seats, perhaps the Mahagathbandhan would have been able to defeat the NDA? Or what happened in Uttar Pradesh with the 2017 alliance with the Samajwadi Party. To further buttress the point, we have a successful case study of an instance when the Congress is not the architect of the alliance, as is what happened in Maharashtra post-Assembly polls. In fact it was Pawar who crafted that alliance.
Yes, one has followed Pawar’s career closely and there has been more than one instance when personal ambition has got the better of him. So one can understand the Gandhis being wary of giving him the keys to the chicken coop. But, these are desperate times, and right now Pawar seems the Opposition’s best bet to take on the BJP. But when handing over the keys, keep changing the locks.