The NCP (SP) will launch its election campaign in western Maharashtra this week, with the party’s hoardings and banners projecting Sharad Pawar’s face.
This is because, firstly, the party is yet to announce candidates for constituencies in its stronghold; and secondly, it wants to avoid the inauspicious 15-day period of Pitru Paksha, which starts after the Ganesh Chaturthi.
The NCP (SP) thinks launching the campaign after Pitru Paksha will be too late. All campaign materials that are being prepared will say “Sharad Pawar is your candidate”, a senior party official said on Wednesday.
Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders are postponing seat-sharing talks so that potential rebels don’t get much time to stand as independent candidates, a source said on condition of anonymity. Delay in seat-sharing announcement automatically means delay in announcement of the candidate list. In such a situation, the party does not want to lose time and wants to launch the outdoor campaign as soon as possible.
At a rally in Junnar in Pune district, NCP (SP) MP Dr Amol Kolhe said: “We know you are all eager to defeat the Mahayuti and the BJP in Maharashtra and there is a lot of speculation about who the candidate from this constituency will be. We have a list of aspirants in various constituencies, but you all must imagine as if your constituency candidate is Sharad Pawar himself. Whoever contests the polls on our behalf, your vote is going to go for Sharad Pawar.”
Another factor that is prompting Pawar’s party to launch the campaign only with his face is the fact that there might be defections from the NCP (SP) to the BJP or Shiv Sena. Once the constituency distribution between MVA becomes evident, some of the aspirants might cross over to the Mahayuti side. To avoid confusion among the supporters of NCP (SP), the strategy is to keep the list of probable candidates under wraps and use only Pawar face in campaign materials.
