Sharad Pawar's Nephew's 'Operation Lotus' Warning To Maharashtra Opposition

Maharashtra's opposition alliance - the Maha Vikas Aghadi - has been put on alert after NCP-SP lawmaker Rohit Pawar said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had launched the second phase of 'Operation Lotus' - the term used to describe its alleged poaching of opposition MPs and MLAs.

The alliance consists of the Congress, and the NCP and Shiv Sena factions led by Sharad Pawar and ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who saw their parties split within a year of each other, starting June 2022, and align with the BJP, allegedly after the latter paid off MLAs to switch sides.

Rohit Pawar also pointed to a recent controversy involving NCP MLA Sangram Jagtap and his remarks urging Hindus to buy Diwali gifts and items from 'Hindu shopkeepers' as an example.

He also pointed out the BJP-led ruling alliance, dubbed Mahayuti, has been busy shutting down state-sponsored schemes. This is especially true, he said, of those credited to non-BJP leaders, such as the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana launched by the Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde

Pawar claimed 28 lakh beneficiaries have been slashed so far.

"Some schemes were introduced to win voters... but the BJP is not happy that certain benefits are associated with leaders from other parties," Pawar added.

Rohit Pawar also seemed to give Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena a 'hurry up' message, declaring 'MNS needs to agree to the (alliance's) Common Minimum Program.

"When we (the then-undivided NCP) came into this alliance, there were limitations on what to say and what to address under the CMP. If the MNS agrees to that, then it shouldn't be a problem... but the final call will be taken by the party heads," he said.

Political circles in the state have been abuzz with talk of a Thackeray reunion.

The once-estranged cousins seemed to have found common political ground over the past few months, beginning with protests against Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' now-cancelled order making the teaching of Marathi mandatory for students from Class I to V.

Thackeray and Thackeray have met each other five times in the past three months, not including a landmark moment when the visited each other's houses for Ganesh Chaturthi in August.

If the talks translate into an alliance, it reshape electoral equations in Mumbai, where both have significant local influence, particularly before the civic election.

In that context, Rohit Pawar's message to Raj Thackeray has been seen as a reminder of sorts, that an alliance with Uddhav Thackeray will include accepting the Congress and the NCP as allies, and, with that, the three parties' common programme.

Meanwhile, Rohit Pawar also criticised the influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - the right-wing body that serves as the ideological mentor of the BJP - over universities in the state.

His point - that the RSS' influence had contributed to deterioration of such institutions - reflected a larger narrative building in states not ruled by the BJP or its allies, including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Senior leaders from the Congress (in the former) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (in the latter) have accused the RSS of 'sowing the seeds of communalism'.