Supriya Sule is a member of the Nationalist Congress Party’s national committee and a three-time member of parliament from Maharashtra’s Baramati constituency. Sule—the daughter of Sharad Pawar, the NCP chief and veteran Maratha politician—is one of the most prominent leaders of the party. Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, scheduled for 21 October, the NCP entered into an alliance with the Congress. In the Lok Sabha elections, the NCP won just four seats in Maharashtra, and the Congress only one, while the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance won 41 of the total 48 seats.
On 16 October, in an interview at her Mumbai office with Tushar Dhara, a reporting fellow with The Caravan, Sule discussed the NCP-Congress alliance’s preparation for the elections, the BJP’s campaign strategy and the issues that are missing from the ongoing electoral politics.
Tushar Dhara: The NCP’s stronghold is western Maharashtra. The BJP has tried to penetrate this bastion, and a lot of leaders from the NCP and the Congress have switched over to the BJP. Do you expect seats from any other region?
Supriya Sule: We will still do well, it doesn’t matter. They were leaders, the party made them. Time will tell how long they survive on their own, whether they will win this. We have put up a lot of new candidates, good MLAs who are still with us—they will win. We will get seats from all over the state, and even western Maharashtra.
TD: In the last five years, the BJP has tried hard to dislodge the NCP and the Congress’s hold over the sugar cooperatives in western Maharashtra. They have succeeded to a certain extent. Will this hurt the NCP-Congress combine in the assembly elections?
SS: It’s not about hurting, it’s about institutions. It is unfortunate that this government does not like institutions, and they hurt institutions, which is a problem in the long run. I don’t know why people look at sugar factories as bad—they create wealth and jobs for farmers. If it’s run well, why should anyone object? All sugar factories are not bad.
TD: There is a political patronage attached to sugar cooperatives, which were originally created by the Congress and the NCP. But the BJP has dislodged your party from these patronage networks to an extent. Does this hand an advantage to the BJP?
SS: We—Congress and NCP—ruled this state and country for decades, but if you lose an election, what is wrong in rebuilding and working hard?
TD: The Maratha vote has usually been split between the Congress and the NCP, whereas the Other Backward Classes and the upper castes have largely consolidated behind the BJP. But the BJP has tried to break the Congress-NCP combine’s hold over the Marathas by introducing reservations for the community and co-opting the Maratha sugar barons. Will this hurt the NCP?
SS: The NCP has never done caste politics. Our politics is only about development. It has to be about focus, about people doing well and serving the nation to make a difference.
TD: Maharashtra has no shortage of issues—water scarcity, unemployment, agrarian distress—but the BJP’s strategy seems to be centred on nationalism and the reading down of Article 370 of the Constitution. In its Lok Sabha and Haryana campaigns, the BJP delinked politics from the party’s economic policies and the state of the economy. Will they be able to do the same in Maharashtra?
SS: This is obviously a part of their strategy and everyone has a right to have a strategy—but at what cost?
TD: So do you think the BJP’s strategy will be successful?
SS: That’s what a lot of people feel, but I feel disappointed that are we running away from the core issues. It’s not about winning or losing. If I were [the chief minister] Devendra Fadnavis, I would actually feel very guilty that fourteen thousand women are widows because of the bad policies of the BJP government. [A right-to-information response reportedly revealed that in the period from 2014 till February 2019, a total of 14,456 farmers across Maharashtra took their own lives.] Farmers’ suicides happened even in our time, so I won’t say it’s only their thing.
Governance is not only about winning an election, it has to make a difference to peoples’ lives. I was in Kalyan-Dombivli yesterday. [The twin city of Kalyan-Dombivli, adjoining Mumbai, is a part of the union government’s Smart City Mission,” which seeks to create 100 “smart cities” across India. In 2015, Fadnavis had announced a package of Rs 6,500 crore for the city.] They promised Rs 6,000 crore—not one rupee has gone there. Which city has become smart?
TD: What do you think are the core issues Maharashtra is facing?
SS: For me, it’s only development—farmers’ suicides, unemployment, economy, basic infrastructure. Look at all the promises they made. They talked about roads—look at the potholes, it’s an absolute challenge [to travel].
TD: Is the talk about nationalism and Article 370 an attempt to divert attention away from the core issues?
SS: Clearly, because they haven’t done much. The honourable chief minister says there is no opponent. Okay, great. If there is no opponent, and you are going to win, why do you need [the prime minister] Narendra Modi’s ten rallies, [the home minister] Amit Shah’s twenty rallies, [and the BJP leaders] Yogi Adityanath, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad?
TD: The BJP has also used this image of Narendra Modi as an incorruptible person and pitted it against corrupt political dynasties in the states. In Maharashtra, the party has targeted the Pawar family. How is this likely to play out with voters?
SS: I feel that it’s okay. They have no [substantive] issues against us, so they keep targeting us. I am flattered. If they are so obsessive and they feel that unless we target the Pawars nothing will work, or that we won’t get a headline.
TD: But will it find some traction?
SS: I am sure it will. Why would it not? Because we are not making allegations, we are saying let’s discuss performance. I feel terrible that here we are going towards a more modern India and nobody is talking about hardcore issues. I was at [an interview with the] Indian Express and someone asked me, when will the Indian parliament debate climate change? We have put climate change in our manifesto. We need to get serious, get beyond the “tu tu, main main” [referring to the finger-pointing during electoral campaigns].
TD: In my recent travels through Maharashtra, I saw a lot of election hoardings of the BJP and almost none of the NCP or the Congress. Does this point to an imbalance in the money available to spend with the respective parties?
SS: Clearly. There is no comparison of the money power and muscle power of the BJP versus any other party in the country today.
TD: Where is the BJP getting the money from?
SS: It’s a question you have to ask them.
TD: Is it a disadvantage for the opposition?
SS: I don’t think money can buy everything. It clearly doesn’t buy happiness.
TD: Elections are not about happiness.
SS: Of course they are—it’s about performance in your job. Devendra Fadnavis may have all the money and power in the world, but he will go down in history as [the chief minister whose tenure saw] 14,000 farmers’ suicides—the maximum.
TD: But could the BJP still win?
SS: The people of Maharashtra will decide that. I personally feel that the Congress and NCP alliance will do well.
TD: The NCP won four Lok Sabha seats and the Congress won one. How many seats do you expect to win in the assembly elections?
SS: There are times when people vote differently in state elections and national elections.
This interview has been edited and condensed.