Sharad Pawar’s face ticks on a clock on the chairman’s walls. The expensive new furnishings have been selected by heir Ajitdada. Uncle and nephew beam from glossy photographs in every room.The glass and chrome structure of the Baramati Doodh Sangh (1,90,000 litres flows from this milk co-operative daily) is almost an oddity in a dusty, ordinary square in Baramati.What’s not ordinary is the power network buzzing inside — from the telephones of dairy kings wearing Gandhi caps, white pyjamas and chappals in upholstered, air-conditioned cabins renovated a year ago.Not far away, is a dusty two-room office of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) without a telephone connection. When The Indian Express visited, it was stark empty of party workers or poll material.‘‘NCP communication is possible only from the doodh sangh,’’ says Ramchandra Jagtap, chairman of Baramati taluka’s NCP unit. ‘‘All office-bearers are NCP men. We pass on messages from here since the party office has no telephone.’’‘‘Everytime we want a public meeting organised, we send messages from here,’’ says Shrirang Gawde, chairman of the Baramati Taluka Sahakari Doodh Utpadak Sangh. His office — complete with stained glass and Compaq computers mostly switched off — has chambers for Ajitdada and a Sharad Sabhagruha where NCP cadres collected for party meetings until the code of conduct was enforced.The message from Baramati’s baron hasn’t changed since 1999. No big rallies, no big cut-out posters during drought sensitivity. Instead, the Sangh is fending for 7,000 hungry cattle at cattle camps.‘‘First we meet in village corners, chatting about voters’ problems,’’ says Jagtap. Two groups have covered 10 villages daily, sharing problems and spreading NCP’s message since March 5. Next, booth committees per village hand around voter slips.Right next door to the politically powerful milkmen, NCP’s new office is coming up over 6,000 sq ft, promising separate cabins for every leader. But until September’s Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the footsoldiers of this fiefdom will be ordered from an office with a fake cow standing in the lobby.
