Saying that no political party ever vanishes completely, the Shiv Sena on Thursday seemed to agree with the NCP’s Rohit Pawar that BJP leaders praise or target Sharad Pawar, his grandfather, as per convenience. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had slammed Pawar at a recent rally. With the exit of many NCP leaders, the BJP had also said that soon it will become a one-man party. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s contribution to the development of Maharashtra cannot be overlooked, the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ said in its editorial on Thursday. “Pawar’s contribution has been acknowledged by (prime minister) Narendra Modi himself during a visit to (Pawar’s hometown) Baramati. Modi also called Pawar his ‘guru’,” it said. Yet, on Sunday, Amit Shah targeted Pawar over dynasty politics and corruption at a rally in Solapur, it pointed out. The newspaper referred to Pawar’s grandson Rohit Pawar’s swipe at the BJP that praising Pawar on one hand and then asking what had he done for Maharashtra was “politics of double standard”. Rohit was the first from the Pawar family to counter the BJP’s barbs, it added. The attacks on Sharad Pawar were continuing even five years after the NCP lost power, the Saamana editorial noted. “Both Maharashtra and the country are not ruled by Pawar or Congress, BJP-Shiv Sena government is in power for last five years (in the state). The campaign (ahead of coming state elections) should focus on our (government’s) performance,” the editorial said. The NCP was born out of a split (in the Congress) and now the breakaway group was splintering, it said. “Political winds change. Parties are formed, they decline. But no party ever vanishes from the political horizon. Everybody in politics should remember this,” it said. However, the situation within the NCP indicated that Pawar’s grip on Maharashtra politics had weakened, it said. “In his heyday, Pawar too practiced the politics of breaking up other parties,” it added.
