In my 59 years of journalism I came across only one leader who refused to nurse such ambitions. Sharad Pawar had played drama of challenging PV Narsimha Rao for the leadership of the Congress parliamentary party in 1991 but it was his cover to get recognition that he too was an able politician and the Congress man. His need for acceptance was born from the shallow treatment he received on his return to the Congress party in December 1986. Rajiv Gandhi had persistently ignored Pawar on his return, perhaps, under the fear that he was capable to challenge even Rajiv Gandhi. Raja Dinesh Singh was responsible for sowing seeds of distrust for Sharad Pawar.

Pawar gained what he was fighting for with addition of defence portfolio and honourable place in the party. After his election to the Working Committee in the Tirupati Session, it was suggested he should be preparing for the top slot. He immediately and sharply retorted why he should even think of it. “I have not thought of what this country needs and what I can do to get it for? I have no ambitions to add my name of the panel that has names of all prime ministers who occupied the first seat on the right of the presiding officer’s chair in the Lok Sabha.” Without definite ideas he was not even ready to think of it though the possibility and potentiality was visible.

Bereft of such ambitions, he even acceded to suggestion by the Prime Minister Narsimha Rao to take over reign of Maharashtra in flames of communal frenzy following bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993 within three months of demolition of Babri mosque in Ayodhya in December 1992. The chief minister Sudhakar Naik proved himself to be incapable of controlling the erupted political situation. In words of Sitaram Kesri, Pawar had blown up his chances by going back to the state for the post. Kesri who also nursed ambitions of one day being occupant of the office in South Block could not comprehend that Sharad Pawar considered his return to the state as his first political obligation for people needed him to use his ability for their security and welfare.

Among the lot nursing ambitions first is the Bengal chief minister Mamta Bannerji. She wears her ambition openly on her sleeve. She had even launched effort for formation of a new front to take on the 2019 electoral battle with the Congress as a part. She could think of the Congress association as Rahul Gandhi did not display ambition. Mamta Bannerji rushed to Sonia Gandhi to discus political formation. However Mamta’s enthusiasm evaporated the moment Rahul Gandhi clarified that he would not run away in case the job called him to shoulder the responsibility. But she was back in business of forming the front without the two major parties so as to improve her prospects.

Mamta had hurled only abuses at the left parties since 1985 after winning a seat in the Lok Sabha. Her tirades against the left parties in the Lok Sabha were a great source of amusement for her party men though she failed to even scratch skins of her opponents. But her bitter attacks on the left and disassociation with the Congress got her a cabinet position in the Vajpayee government. She was equally discomforted in the Saffron culture to run away and pursue her independent path. She did not realize that mere abuses of opponents were not enough to widen the base.

Finally, she got the opportunity to form her government in Bengal though she had good intent but no clear ideology as to what she wants to make of Bengal. She is very intolerant and short sighted political individual as instances of punitive actions against anyone critical of her regime indicated. Her intolerance can stand in her path. It is not arrogance of wisdom but product of her sense of insecurity.

The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav does not wear his ambition off his sleeve though the sprouting of seeds of ambition is perceptible even from a long distance in her accepting subordinate role to Mayavati, another former chief minister and not an archangel for senior Yadav. Mayavati was in dancing mode in July 2008 when the survival crisis had enveloped the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Several state leaders poured in to greet her potential replacement but it turned out to be a day dream. Mayavati knows her failure in three elections to display her strength even in Uttar Pradesh stands in the way to her ascendancy.

She knows leaders of various parties have also seen and noted the loosened knots in her hold over the Dalit minds in Uttar Pradesh also. Without her proving she commands political hold over the Dalits she could not be and would not be favoured for the top spot. The OBC proportion in every state is above 30 per cent. They do not need to mobilize the Dalit votes. They are not a consolidated political entity only in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh but they rule few states and until recently even Uttar Pradesh. They are disenchanted with the rightist politicians after five years of NaMo experiment though young and educated OBC had turned their back to the OBC interest consolidation in forms of state parties in two Hindi belt states. At one time it appeared they will all combine into a new party headed by NaMo. It collapsed even before it could take off. But BJP may attempt to lure away Mayavati with offer of its support in case it ends up with hundred short of the majority. NDA remains only in name. Neither Anna DMK nor Nitish Kumar can prop up the BJP led government and the Akali Dal has to survive the onslaught of Capt Amrinder Singh. Chandra Babu Naidu would prefer the role of a king maker rather than wear a thorny crown. He is aware of his limitations outside Telugu Praja sphere. He would rather be emperor of a small kingdom and be worshipped as their god than be lost in vastness of India.