NEW DELHI: One of the shrewdest politicians in India remains Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar. He is also one of the richest politician amassing wealth that is spoken of in hushed tones even in political circles, with Pawar having managed to keep his assets protected through political moves that have kept him out of legal dragnets that have engulfed taller leaders than him.

While media stories circulate about the BJP soliciting his support by threatening action against Ajit Pawar, the real story lies in the connections that Sharad Pawar is so adept at making. He was very friendly with Shiv Sena’s Bal Thackeray, and used this friendship to good advantage before every Assembly and Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra to pressure others he wanted to ally with. This time around, astute enough to read the writing on the wall, he has cultivated his old friendship with BJP leader Nitin Gadkari and opened channels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who he met in Delhi a few weeks ago.

It is clear, according to sources, that Pawar and the top echelons of the BJP negotiated a deal whereby he would extend support to the latter if it emerged as the single largest party. It was on this assurance that the BJP was able to ditch the Shiv Sena, and spurn the alliance that was made conditional to accepting Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister of the state. In the BJP’s assessment it would at best be short of 20 odd seats to a majority in the state and the NCP would fill the gap easily. As it is the NCP has done surprisingly better than expected, losing fewer seats than the Congress party.

Pawar who does not negotiate for top positions, is looking basically for a deal that protects his wealth and his local political aspirations, will be content with a few Ministers in the Maharashtra cabinet as well as a post or two at the centre. The BJP short of persons who can run some of the major ministries will not be averse to including Pawar in the Union Cabinet. Defence could be a Ministry for him, although according to the sources this has still to be worked on.

He has strengthened relations with Gadkari and Modi together, with rumours now that the NCP won more seats than expected because of help from the BJP that was keen to keep him afloat. That might or might not be, but Pawar’s support has certainly taken the edge of the Shiv Sena’s tantrums that have effectively placed it outside the loop. Saamna, the Sena mouthpiece, now claims that there is no Modi wave in Maharashtra with the party insisting that it will not compromise on Uddhav Thackeray for chief minister in any alliance with the BJP. The problem is that the BJP is not at all interested.

Pawar was also close to former BJP Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. In fact he was expelled from the Congress party for questioning Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins in 1999 and left to form the NCP at that time along with Tariq Anwar and PA Sangma. He was persuaded to go back in alliance with the Congress later although he has always strained at the leash. He has, however, been given ministries of his choice and unlike other allies has remained content with the positions of power.

Lately his relations with the Congress were at a low ebb, largely because of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s reticence in discussing alliances before the Lok Sabha elections. Lokjanshakti party leader Ram Vilas Paswan left to join the BJP but not before he spent days and weeks in trying to get the Congress to agree to a seat sharing formula for Bihar. Paswan told The Citizen at the time that the Congress president just did not seem interested, and he was coming under tremendous pressure from his party in the state to allocate the seats so that the candidates could start campaigning. Pawar too had the same experience but went and met Sonia Gandhi. However, relations between the two had always remained tense and she was unable---or did not even try---to get the Maharashtra Congress to work along with the NCP. In fact as a NCP leader said, “the effort of the Congress in these elections was not to defeat the BJP but to defeat us.”

Pawar has thus jumped off the Congress bandwagon in these elections and will in all likelihood be with the BJP, at least for the next five years at both the centre and the state. He has never been an integral part of third front options, preferring to walk alone than join the regional parties. He has good relations however, with all and could act as a major influence in cementing ties between UP’s former chief minister Mayawati and the BJP.

The sources insisted that the deal between Pawar and the top BJP leaders was worked out before the elections, and will unravel in all its detail before the next government is formed in Maharashtra.