Amid speculation of a reunion that he reignited a week ago, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar shared the stage with his estranged nephew and NCP president Ajit Pawar, the Maharashtra Deputy CM, for the second time in four days at an event organised by the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank in Mumbai on Monday.
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The Mumbai event comes after the two leaders were seen together at a programme organised by the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha in Satara on Friday.
Sources in the NCP claimed the rival party’s moves were primarily aimed at addressing internal dissent ahead of the local body elections. “It is important that the morale of their elected representatives as well as party workers remains high, especially with the local body polls approaching. This is a part of their strategy,” said a senior elected representative in the NCP.
Pawar first sparked the buzz in an interview to The Indian Express on May 7 by acknowledging internal differences in his party on the question of joining hands with Ajit. “There are two views in the party. One is that we reunite with Ajit, while the other says we should not go with the BJP, directly or indirectly,” he said.
That his statement came two days after the Supreme Court cleared the decks for the conduct of local body polls provided credence to the NCP’s claim that the veteran leader had engineered the speculation with the elections in mind.
Claiming that Ajit and his supporters faced a similar situation in 2014, the leader said they were given a go-ahead to hold alliance talks with the BJP. “Nothing was conveyed definitively, but it did not materialise at the last moment. Similarly, Pawar is sending a message to his leaders that they should wait and not take any steps as of now,” the NCP leader said.
According to sources, at least four of the NCP (SP)’s 10 MLAs are in favour of the reunion. Murmurs of an NCP merger first emerged after the NCP (SP), a constituent of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) with the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), managed to win only 10 of the 86 seats it contested in last year’s Assembly elections. The ruling Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, the Shiv Sena, and the NCP, returned to power emphatically, winning 235 of the state’s 288 Assembly seats. The NCP (SP)’s drubbing came just four months after it won eight of the 10 seats it contested in the Lok Sabha elections. The NCP (SP)’s and NCP vote shares in the Assembly polls stood at 11.28% and 9.1% respectively while in the Lok Sabha polls the two parties garnered 10.27% and 3.6% of the votes respectively.
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Even as NCP (SP) working president and Baramati MP Supriya Sule, who is Pawar’s daughter, said she would discuss the issue with party workers before taking any call, an NCP (SP) MLA pointed out that the reunion would not be as easy as was being perceived. “Uniting with Ajit will mean supporting the BJP at the state and national level. More than addressing dissent, it is about sending a message to the BJP that we have eight MPs and it does not have a full majority. Pawar is a key Opposition leader. Let us wait before jumping to conclusions,” the leader said on the condition of anonymity.
The reunion buzz has left other parties in the ruling alliance and the Opposition coalition wary. While Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis chose not to comment on the issue, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said the two NCP factions “were already together”. “They are not like us. Our self-respecting position is not to join forces with those who broke our party, toppled the government, misused power, and stabbed Maharashtra in the back,” Raut said.
In an apparent reference to Sule’s remarks, Raut said, “Some parties are more liberal and claim they will take a decision (on the reunion) after consulting party workers,” he said, adding that he had no complaints about Pawar.
