Sharad Pawar is a long-distance runner and a very focused person: a 24/7 politician. He has never made a secret of his ambition to be prime minister; in fact, he has been working openly towards that for the past 20 years. But he set the target back in the late ’70s when he became chief minister of Maharashtra, heading the state’s first coalition. In that Progressive Democratic Front were diverse political elements, from the Sangh Parivar to Samajawadi Saathis.

He formed the front methodically, behind closed doors, before dramatically toppling the government of Congress veteran Vasantdada Patil. Patil’s government itself was an alliance of sorts, between Indira Gandhi’s faction and that of Y.B. Chavan. These factions had emerged after the Congress’s second split, following Mrs Gandhi’s defeat in the referendum-like 1977 elections: party stalwarts Chavan and Brahmananda Reddy distanced themselves from Indira Gandhi and formed a parallel Congress.

Pawar’s own Congress (S) was a sort of third breakaway, because he had broken his association with the Congress completely. But all that happened with the backdrop of the Janata government in New Delhi. Pundits and journalists do not agree, even today, whether Pawar broke away on the advice of Y.B. Chavan or acted on his own. Chavan re-joined the Congress (I) in 1980, on her return to power. But Pawar remained with his PDF. That explains his bonhomie with non-Congress and even anti-Congress parties; indeed, his networking across parties is always a subject of political gossip and intrigue. He is admired and also abhorred for this very skill.

... contd.