June 29, 1998

Pawar remains just a regional satrap as his rivals score over him in the elections to the Rajya Sabha.

By Smruti Koppikar

In the end, Sharad Pawar could shepherd only one of the two Congress candidates to the Rajya Sabha from his home turf, Maharashtra. While Najma Heptullah barely got her share of 41 votes needed to win the Rajya Sabha seat from a 288-member Legislative Assembly, Ram Pradhan fell short by a single vote. However, Vijay Darda, newspaper tycoon and an Independent backed by the Congress, made it to the Upper House.

The results could be dismissed as just another setback for the Congress if it didn't have so many implications for Pawar. For one, his plan to woo a large school of Independents over to the Congress did not succeed fully. Then, despite his personal efforts and supervision of the electoral process, the results did not go along expected lines.

But more important is the likely fallout of Pradhan's defeat. With Sonia Gandhi-backed Pradhan falling by the wayside, Pawar can only expect his uncomfortable relationship with the party president to worsen. Sidelined in recent weeks in Parliament -- Sonia chose Natwar Singh to debate the nuclear issue in the Lok Sabha though Pawar is the leader of the Opposition -- Pawar badly needed to reassert his supremacy from the state. That didn't happen.

What made it worse was that he lost at yet another level. As a victorious Suresh Kalmadi went wild with joy, Pawar knew that his one-time friend had won this round of the political battle. Roundly defeated in the Lok Sabha election this February, Kalmadi pulled out all stops to ensure his march to the Upper House. From enlisting the support of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to wooing the largest possible number of the 44 Independent MLAs, Kalmadi plotted each move from his suite at a five-star hotel in Mumbai. Two days to the election, he was sure of Pradhan's defeat, if not his own victory. Clearly, he knew something that Pawar didn't. "Sharad had dug a pit for me; he fell into it himself," laughed Kalmadi.

Congress leaders admitted that the result was a major setback for the party and there are several loose ends they have to tie up before challenging the Sena-BJP Government openly. Sources say that about 12 of the party's 78 MLAs cross-voted which led to Pradhan getting less than his share of the preferential votes. That Darda, backed by the party, could amass a healthy number of Independent votes gives Congressmen some consolation. "It was a close call for us," said a senior leader. "We will have to now give serious attention to the legislative wing of the party."

The Sena leadership too has to do some introspection. Even if two official candidates -- former MP Satish Pradhan and journalist Pritish Nandy -- and officially-supported candidate Kalmadi made it, the voting pattern shows cross-voting. Both Pradhan and Nandy got fewer first preferential votes than the number allotted to them. Chief Minister Manohar Joshi admitted as much; it's a worrying factor for a Government that's dependent on Independents for its survival.

Even though Pramod Mahajan won, the BJP can't be smug either. Mahajan got six votes less than the 55 allotted to him. He, like Kalmadi, suffered a major setback in February when he lost the Lok Sabha election from Mumbai Northeast. That these two men, with an enviable capacity to get what they want, are now ensconced in Parliament only makes it that much more difficult for Pawar.

True, the Congress downed a Sena-BJP candidate to win five of the 10 seats in the Legislative Council election held simultaneously but that was small consolation. Worse, it reflects a reputation that Pawar has tried hard to shrug off in the last six years -- that of being a mere state satrap. Circumstances don't seem to bolster his efforts.

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