NCP family affirms unity, begins prep for panchayat polls

Less than 24 hours after a bruising defeat in Maharashtra’s municipal elections, leaders from the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got into a huddle at their stronghold of Baramati to once again speak the language of unity.

- Yogesh Joshi

Ajit Pawar

On Saturday, leaders of the two NCPs — one headed by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, and the other by party founder Sharad Pawar — discussed a joint strategy for the upcoming zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections due next month.

This, many perceive, is the next step towards a formal reunion. The party had split in 2023 after Ajit Pawar walked out with two MPs and 40 legislators to join the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.

‘A day prior to the meeting at Baramati, both factions had performed dismally in the elections to 29 municipal corporations across the state, including in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, long considered Pawar strongholds. Not only did the two NCPs not win a single municipal corporation, in several places they did not even open an account. In Pune, the BJP won 120 of 165 seats, Of the remaining 45 seats, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP won 21 seats, while the Sharad Pawar faction secured just three. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, where they contested together, the BJP crossed the majority mark on its own, winning 84 seats in the 128-member civic body.