What the Sharad Pawar resignation may do: Will it unite the NCP?

There is heavy drama in the Nationalist Congress Party with its founder Sharad Pawar deciding to step down as its president. Speaking at the launch of the second edition of his autobiography, Pawar said that he began his career in 1960. "Yesterday we celebrated May Day. After this prolonged political career, one must think about stopping somewhere. One must not be greedy," he said.

He further recommended that a committee of senior NCP leaders would decide on the further course of action. The committee he said would comprise, Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, P C Chacko, Narhari Zirwal, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujabl, Dilip walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Jaydev Gaikwad and chiefs of party frontal cells."

The move comes amidst reports of Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar trying to move out of the party. A group of his supporters had put up posters projecting him as the next chief minister of Maharashtra. NCP leader Jayant Patil too had said that the next chief minister would be from their party.

The move by the senior Pawar also comes in the wake of Ajit Pawar's supporters putting up hoardings in several cities declaring him as the future CM. Ajit Pawar too had said in a recent interview that he would like to become CM.

Analysts say that the fact that the senior Pawar would step down was inevitable. There is a leadership change that it needed in the party. Moreover this could also be a move by Sharad Pawar to prevent any split in the party. Looking at how things have been evolving, it became clear that Ajit Pawar would have broken away from the party as he has larger ambitions and he has displayed that he has a good number of supporters. Sharad Pawar quitting as president, changes the equation and builds up a sympathy factor, the analyst tells OneIndia.

In the aftermath of him stepping down as the president of the party, there are already protests and emotional appeals that are being made for him to reconsider his decision. The analyst cited above also says that the decision could change things for Ajit Pawar and his supporters may return to the senior Pawar's fold. Overall interesting days ahead in Maharashtra and there is plenty of drama left in Maharashtra. To put it in a nutshell, the resignation of Pawar as party president may end up uniting the party. Ajit Pawar on the other hand who was present at the event said that the panel would now decide on who the next chief would be.