'Don't want to contest any more elections': Sharad Pawar says he wants to hang up boots

Pune: Creating shock among the gathering and protests from his supporters, Nationalist Congress Party-SP President Sharad Pawar, who will turn 84 next month, on Tuesday indicated that he wants to call it a day in politics - after putting in 57 years in the dust and grime of periodic elections.

"I still have another one-and-half years left in the Rajya Sabha… Need to think about whether I should continue further. I don’t want to contest any more elections now," the ‘young’ octogenarian, sharp and sprightly as ever, said at a ‘Swabhiman’ poll rally in Shirsuphal village for his grand-nephew Yugendra S. Pawar of NCP-SP, who is contesting against his uncle Nationalist Congress Party President and Deputy CM Ajit A. Pawar from the prestigious Baramati Assembly constituency in one of the most avidly watched poll battles in the November 20 Maharashtra Assembly elections.

His sudden announcement seemed to have left others on the dais shocked, while the crowds raised and waved their arms in protest.

Sharad Pawar gently and gratefully acknowledged how the people of Baramati (in Pune) had consistently elected him to Assembly Lok Sabha for a record 14 times, and he served as CM (4 times) and Union Minister (several times), besides handling other prestigious domestic and global assignments.

He also referred to how other family members like his daughter Supriya Sule-Pawar plus her cousin Ajit A. Pawar were also generously supported by Baramatikars who have now made the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats as the invincible political bastions of the formidable Pawar clan.

“I worked here for 25 years, and later handed over to Ajit A. Pawar. I have no grudge against him, he led the Baramati (assembly) seat for nearly 30 years… Now it is time for me to prepare a young, dynamic leadership which can take over for the next three decades," said the senior Pawar, who has spent over six decades in hyper-active public life.

He said that Yugendra S. Pawar was fielded with this specific aim in mind - adding in his characteristic, simple but effective words: "I am not seeking your votes… You have always been magnanimous with all the Pawars in this. But, we have to look ahead now at the future."

The NCP-SP supremo’s unexpected assertions could prove to be soothing music for the flustered Ajit Pawar who has been publicly clamouring in the past couple of years for his uncle (Sharad Pawar) to retire and sit at home to make way for others and guide the gen-next, like a ‘marg-darshak’ (mentor).

Indirectly imparting some political ‘gyan’ to the younger breed of Pawars, the wizened but wily Sharad Pawar emphatically pointed out that politics is not "all about winning elections and bagging power", but a tool to do something for larger public welfare.

"Whenever you elected me, I always thought of giving something or the other for the betterment of the people…Through one project, the masses here got water supply, and another dairy cooperative scheme ensured one lakh litres of milk production. The Dynamix Dairy came here where eight lakh litres of milk is processed daily. When farmers were in crises, they were provided with alternatives," said Pawar, touching upon some of his contributions to his home base.

He added that on Wednesday, he would join Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi, and Shiv Sena-UBT President Uddhav Thackeray at a major poll rally in Mumbai, then proceed to Nagpur to canvass in Vidarbha region.

The 83-year-old veteran Maratha - who has undertaken gruelling canvassing both in the Lok Sabha and upcoming Assembly elections - will wind up with his final poll rally again for Yugendra S. Pawar in Baramati on November 18.