Sharad Pawar meets PM after joining NEET protest: Why his political moves amid Delimitation Bill matter
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Sharad Pawar meets PM after joining NEET protest: Why his political moves amid Delimitation Bill matter")
Sharad Pawar joined opposition leaders at the Jantar Mantar protest and also met PM Modi
Sharad Pawar joined opposition leaders at the Jantar Mantar protest before meeting PM Modi with daughter Supriya Sule, fuelling speculation over NCP(SP)’s political future. Amid Delimitation Bill debates, questions are growing over whether Pawar could move closer to the NDA.
on Tuesday Sharad Pawar joined forces with the opposition at Jantar Mantar where students are protesting against NEET paper leak and seeking education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, on Wednesday he was meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his daughter MP Supriya Sule. In June, there were several reports to suggest that Sharad Pawar’s NCP(SP) could be considering a merger with the Congress to prevent any possible poaching of his legislators. A month later in July, there are strong speculations that Sharad Pawar is leaning towards the NDA to secure the future of his party in the twilight years of his politics.
His daughter Supriya Sule, who is MP from Baramati, has rejected all speculations on backing or joining the NDA and has maintained that the party is yet to take any stand on the Delimitation Bill.But her remark last week: “if the proposed Delimitation Bill- a key legislative agenda of the NDA government- is based on a uniform 50 per cent increase in seats across all states, there would be little reason to oppose it," has already set tongues wagging.
Pawar has at present 8 members in Lok Sabha and 10 MLAs in Maharashtra assembly. With the NDA government working aggressively behind the scenes to reach the magic figure of two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha for the Delimitation Bill, Sharad Pawar knows that his MPs are vulnerable. He has just seen Uddhav Thackeray helplessly lose his 6 MPs to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. Both Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar have suffered coups that split their parties vertically. While Shinde revolted against Uddhav and took control of the Shiv Sena, in NCP the revolt was led by the late Ajit Pawar, who rebelled against his uncle Sharad in 2023 and wrested control of the party.
a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office has raised political eyebrows.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and his daughter and MP Surpiya Sule met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his office on Wednesday.
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In pictures from the meeting the veteran Maratha leader and the prime minister were seen sharing a hearty laugh while exchanging some notes.
In another picture Prime Minister was seen receiving the senior leader at the door of his room.
During the meeting Sharad Pawar submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister listing the issues faced by the farmers in the country and issues related to irrigation.
What is the Delimitation Bill?
The Delimitation Bill will redraw parliamentary and assembly constituencies and according to that it will readjust the allocation of Lok Sabha seats among states as provided by law after the Census (Article 82). The next nationwide delimitation is to be undertaken after the first Census conducted after 2026, making it the first major readjustment in decades. It is linked to Women's Reservation as the Constitution (106th Amendment) states that reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies will come into effect only after the first Census following the amendment and a subsequent delimitation exercise. This has been highlighted by the ruling party which is batting in favour of the bill.
However, Opposition, specially the Southern states argue that changes in constituency boundaries will directly impact the number of seats and that in turn will impact the parliamentary representation. That's how this has become a major North-South debate and a politically sensitive matter.
