Pawar politics in Maharashtra

This is ironic because the MVA, formed in November 2019, was the brainchild of Sharad Pawar, who outsmarted the NDA, which was poised to form the government, by weaning away the united Shiv Sena by offering to back party chief Uddhav Thackeray for the chief minister’s office.

While the alliance ruled till mid-2022, its formation set in motion a series of events that transformed Maharashtra politics in unexpected ways. The Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar’s own Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) underwent splits, forcing a realignment of forces in the state.

This eventually resulted in a dip in Pawar’s own fortunes, leaving him in charge of a smaller unit of the NCP, the NCP (SP). The unfortunate death, in an air crash, of NCP leader and Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar (Pawar’s nephew) came when the two factions were considering a merger — and may have effectively scuttled it.