Within days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi warning the nation about family-run political parties, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) suffered a vertical split over the inheritance issue soon after party supremo Sharad Pawar handed over the party’s baton to his daughter Supriya Sule, overlooking the claims of nephew and long-time associate Ajit Pawar. This is not the first time that a political party has suffered a split because of family feud, there have been several such instances in Indian politics since Independence. In Maharashtra a similar rebellion took place not long ago when Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray decided to install his son Uddhav Thackeray, ignoring nephew Raj Thackeray. Again, since the exit of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party (SP), a champion of OBC and Muslim causes, which had significant presence in Uttar Pradesh, has almost drifted into oblivion due to internal bickering between Mulayam’s brother Shivpal Yadav and son Akhilesh Singh Yadav. In Bihar, a timely recovery by Lalu Prasad Yadav from life-threatening kidney ailments has saved his party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) from being divided into two as during his absence, his two sons were involved in a bitter fight over leadership.
Thus, it is quite natural for the parties which are run by the decisions of a strong leader without any inclination towards inner-party democracy, to face crisis situations during succession. For example, the rebellion in NCP had been brewing for several months as Ajit Pawar, a trusted lieutenant of Sharad Pawar was eyeing the party’s top slot. But the Maratha strongman decided otherwise and handed over the reins of the party to his daughter Supriya Sule, who is relatively new in politics as compared to Ajit Pawar. To bring the warring factions together, Sharad Pawar even indulged in resignation drama recently and after being apparently satisfied with its effect declared his daughter as the party president and tried to placate Ajit with the responsibility of the party’s legislative wing. But the move backfired terribly as Sharad Pawar lost almost all his confidants overnight, leaving Pawar and his daughter with the tough job of rebuilding the party from scratch.
It’s ironic that the world’s biggest democracy still has family-run parties dominating the country’s political scene. On its part, the Election Commission (EC) has made it mandatory for every political party to hold organisational polls. But, this step has failed to deliver any results as nearly all political parties in the country are run by ad-hoc measures instead of an elected body. Instances of top leaders influencing the poll outcome are also not rare as a person handpicked by Gandhi-Nehru family has now been installed as the Congress president, making a mockery of organisational polls. So to renew the health and strength of Indian democracy, every political party should end the practice of nepotism and other undemocratic practices.
