Once more, Sharad Pawar accomplishes a lot with little effort.

In politics, if keeping everyone—friends and foes alike—guessing is an art, Sharad Pawar can easily be described as a maestro. Pawar’s apparent out-of-the-blue announcement to relinquish the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) presidency on Tuesday morning may have left his partymen and competitors rattled and shocked, it’s not at all surprising coming from a man who is known for his skill of killing many birds with one stone.

Pawar was speaking at an event at Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital, the institute he founded in memory of his mentor and Maharashtra’s first chief minister, organised to release his political biography. Addressing the gathering, Pawar in his true slow-motion style, recalled the state’s history from the day it came into being on May 1, 1960. He went down the memory lane chronicling his political journey till the date and towards the end; in his typical, nonchalant way and announced the decision to give up the post of NCP chief.

It was not that only NCP leaders and workers gathered there were caught off guard by Pawar’s announcement, it took a while even for a large number of mediapersons, too, to realise what they witnessed was a ‘breaking news’. If cricket’s analogy is to be used, Pawar’s move can be dubbed as ‘googly’ or ‘doosra’. By this move, Pawar has raised his stature over his wobbly outfit besieged by a number of exits and constant poaching by the BJP. His resignation also creates an invisible wall around him that the opposition will find it difficult to penetrate. Difficult, because he can’t be held responsible for NCP’s misdeeds, if any, anymore.