A deathless rumour that Sharad Pawar has battled more than anything else in his life is of his imminent entry into the BJP. The fight he put up in this Maharashtra election, probably his last electoral effort, should finally lay such talk to rest.

The speculation started when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Prime Minister and was emboldened when the Nationalist Congress Party leader offered unconditional support to the BJP to form a government in Maharashtra after the last Assembly polls in 2014. Few saw that the Maratha veteran might be plotting a separation between the BJP and its oldest ally, the Shiv Sena.

Habitually unflappable, Pawar often expresses anguish that some should continue to doubt his commitment to secularism.

He led from the front this campaign, taking on the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah juggernaut head-on at a time when the Congress still seemed dazed from the knock it had received in the summer general election.

Pushing 79, Pawar held 65 rallies against Rahul Gandhi’s five and, for the first time, campaigned even for the Congress candidates. He travelled extensively in the rural areas, the only politician to cover every district of the state.

He came under vicious attack. “Doob maro (go drown),” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at an election rally. “Look at their shamelessness. They are openly going around saying what the connection between Article 370 and Maharashtra is…. Doob maro! Doob maro!” Modi said.

The Prime Minister did not name anyone, but just a day before he spoke, Pawar had told a rally: “The BJP doesn’t have anything concrete to show, so they are harping on abrogation of Article 370.”

Pawar refused to be cowed when the Enforcement Directorate named him in a money-laundering case at the start of the campaign. He turned the tables by announcing a voluntary visit to the agency office, which forced the administration to beg him to desist to avert a law-and-order problem.

By then Pawar had roused his supporters across the state, gained wide sympathy and sent out the message that the tallest Maratha leader was being targeted at the fag end of his long political career. It helped dilute the Maratha reservation card the Devendra Fadnavis government had played.

Pawar faced a new challenge this time. Most of his trusted lieutenants had abandoned him, and some of his family members too had crossed over to the BJP. Over 37 senior politicians from the Congress and the NCP defected to the BJP just before the election, creating a vacuum in the higher rungs.

But Pawar took everything in his stride. A video of his address to a rally amid heavy rain went viral and would have helped his party defeat BJP candidate and Shivaji’s descendant Udayanraje Pratapsinh Bhonsle against all odds in the Satara Lok Sabha by-election.

In contrast, the Congress drifted rudderless, putting up little resistance. Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi damaged the Congress-NCP in about 14 seats, and Pawar’s party believes the ally should have stepped in to stanch the bleeding.

From Sonia Gandhi to Rahul to other seniors, Congress leaders chose to stay aloof and watch from Delhi.

“The Maharashtra results could have mirrored Haryana’s had the Congress leadership demonstrated even half the killer instinct that Pawar Saheb showed,” a Congress politician who had defected to the BJP told The Telegraph over the phone.

Pawar, who believes the BJP government has done nothing to merit the re-election, said after the results: “We will be thinking about taking a new leadership ahead. People have asked us to sit in the Opposition and we accept that.”

Asked about the possibility of supporting the Shiv Sena if it broke away from the BJP, he said: “No decision has been taken.… There is no such proposal, either.”