The middle-aged nephew still has a lot to learn. That said, Sharad Pawar has no other option but to rebuild and reassert. There is the little thing called “big ego”, and there are millions of party workers still loyal to Sharad Pawar – anger at the betrayal to their idol driving their aggression and determination.

Besides, Sharad Pawar is not the sort who leaves chores half-done. Also, Sharad Pawar is perhaps the angriest among them all. But, as Ajit Pawar would attest and Supriya Sule would agree, Sharad Pawar’s greatest quality is that he doesn’t lose his cool. Ajit Pawar doing his worst best to provoke and then splitting the NCP was the biggest affront, but instead of a tirade all that came out was the cool “let’s rebuild from scratch”.

The old tale of the boy crying ‘Wolf aaya, Wolf aaya’ could yet come true! Actually, the older Pawar’s strength is in the manner he speaks and it has nothing to do with his speech impediment. There is in him a confidence that comes with years of tackling tough situations from tight corners. Both friend and foe will admit that Pawar is an unforgiving adversary.

Don’t be surprised if long-time colleagues Praful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal are not waking up in cold sweat at odd hours of the night ever since the betrayal! Politics is a merciless calling with betrayal a constant. But this is one time when betrayal will not go unpunished. At least that will be the prime focus for the wounded patriarch. Bhujbal, Praful Patel, Ajit Pawar – nine Judas, all of them backstabbers! Nine pairs of eyes that will not be able to look Sharad Pawar in the eye ever again.

Truly, Ajit Pawar poked his hand in the hornet’s nest. And the hornets would be coming for him. Sharad Pawar has said he was leaving the lot to the Election Commission, but that does not mean he will sit on his hands and doze? Sharad Pawar is not young like Rahul Gandhi to bend ankle-deep in a paddy field, but Sharad Pawar knows his “kisanary” and he was Chief Minister as also Union Defence Minister and Union Agriculture Minister in addition to being an authority on cooperatives.

Come to think of it, Union Cooperatives Minister Amit Shah should be at Sharad Pawar’s feet learning the cooperative ropes instead of plotting to break political parties and cutting political adversaries to size. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called Sharad Pawar his “political guru” and it is unlikely that the mentor would now call it a day and walk into the sunset. Both Modi and Shah can expect a blowback with a backlash in its tail.

That being said, it will not be easy. Rebuilding and reasserting is not child’s play. It will require determination and “dough’, lots of both. The singular advantage for Sharad Pawar will be the collective strength of the combined opposition. Opposition parties should take the fight as their own and help Sharad Pawar rebuild and reassert. A victory for Sharad Pawar will be victory for the combined Opposition.

The split in the NCP was not a “Sharad Pawar googly” – it was the handiwork of the lowlifes in the BJP’s dirty tricks department. It was the deliberate takedown of a powerful adversary to thwart the Opposition’s quest to remove Modi. Also, the Pawar-led Maha Vikas Aghadi was a threat to the Shinde-Fadnavis regime. Now, with Sharad Pawar determined to rebuild the Nationalist Congress Party and his resolve never in doubt, the MVA will remain a threat to the BJP in all forms of elections – local, assembly and parliamentary.

The simple reality is Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, second only to the 80 of Uttar Pradesh, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has riled the wrong guy. Narendra Modi cannot be Prime Minister third time running without a good showing in Sharad Pawar’s home-state, which with Pawar back in form could halt Prime Minister Modi dead in his tracks.

The reality is, with Balasaheb Thackeray gone, if any politician has the potential to single-handedly own Maharashtra, it is Sharad Pawar, especially with the popular tsunami in the making across India’s geographies. History is witness that popular electoral uprisings led by wronged super-leaders has been a recurring theme in independent India's politics. There was ‘JP’ followed by ‘VP’, and now the chance for an ‘SP’? (IPA Service)