pune ncp president sharad pawar has never lost an election he contested in his political innings spanning five decades and is acknowledged as a mass leader with the ability to feel the pulse of the voters prime minister narendra modi has often said that he highly respects pawar not only for his knowledge about the farming sector but also for his political acumen and management skills several leaders in maharashtra also swear by pawars ability to gauge which way the wind is blowing therefore his supporters are baffled by the series of miscalculations by the maratha strongman in the months leading up to the 2019 lok sabha polls and the partys debacle on thursday after the results were declaredseveral ncp workers told this reporter that they find it hard to digest that saheb as pawar is fondly called in the party circles failed to read the writing on the wall and the party ended up with just four seats of the total 48 i cannot pinpoint to just one mistake that has led to our partys pathetic show in this elections there are so many a senior party leader told toithe maratha reservation and growing farm distress were two key issues that have dominated the states sociopolitical agenda for the last two years and the party had hoped that pawar would cash in on both issues big time however the results on may 23 showed that the unrest on both the fronts did not translate into votes for the ncpit all began with pawars flip flop on the maratha reservation when the maratha kranti morcha leaders were still to draft the nittygritties of the agitation pawar publically announced that he does not support castebased reservations and rejected the demand in a public interview with raj thackeray in pune pawar went a step further saying that if reservation is to offered to the upper caste than it should be for the economically weaker sections in all upper castesthough pawars progressive stand was well applauded by some many among the morcha were at the loss to know as to why the maratha strongman was not with them on a key issue like reservation for the community his nephew ajit pawar too had initially opposed reservation but sensing the huge support the maratha agitation drew across the state both supported the reservation demand so much so that in a facesaving act on august 9 2018 ajit joined the quota supporters who had staged a dharna outside pawar familys ancestral home at katewadi in baramatithe flipflop neither pleased the quota supporters nor those with a progressive outlook we not just lost the opportunity to draw from the unrest but our integrity on a key community issue was questioned the leader said adding and the bjp cashed in on it by drafting the quota bill he added similar was the ncps failure to cash on the farm distress as the bjp was allowed to impress upon a narrative among the voters that the distress was