Estranged cousins Ajit Pawar and Supriya Sule on Saturday jointly released the manifesto for the Maharashtra civic elections, sharing the stage for the first time since the NCP split over two years ago and stoking speculation of a possible reunification.
The two rival NCP factions, positioned in opposing political camps in Maharashtra, have come together for the January 15 elections to the Pune Municipal Corporation and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.
The joint manifesto release by NCP chief Ajit Pawar and working president of NCP (SP) Sule came a day after the former told a TV channel that family differences had been resolved and that workers from both factions were keen on uniting.
“The workers of both parties want to unite. The two NCPs are together now. All tensions in our family have ended,” Ajit Pawar, deputy chief minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government, told NDTV Marathi on Friday.
Sule, the daughter of Sharad Pawar, sought to play down the merger speculation. “At the moment, the alliance is only for the elections to the two civic bodies. There has been no discussion on whether this arrangement should continue beyond that,” Sule told reporters in Pune.
She also dismissed speculation that the two NCP factions could come together to join the ruling NDA at the Centre, or that she might be rewarded with a key portfolio in the Narendra Modi government. “Let those who are happy with such rumours talk about them,” Sule said.
The NCP (SP) is currently part of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the Centre and the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra.
Insiders in both camps said backroom efforts towards unifying the two NCP factions were under way, but leadership complexities still needed to be resolved.
“At the moment, the unity has more to do with protecting the family’s traditional turf in Pune by stopping the BJP,” an NCP leader said.
From being a marginal player, the BJP has entrenched itself in the two cash-rich municipal corporations of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad — long considered the Pawars’ home turf. While the BJP has traditionally been strong in Pune, it has also consolidated its hold over the manufacturing hub of Pimpri-Chinchwad. In the 2017 civic body polls, the BJP retained Pune and dislodged the NCP in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
To wrest back at least Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ajit Pawar has stepped up his attacks on the BJP, accusing it of rampant corruption in the civic body. The junior Pawar has long claimed that his efforts had transformed the once-sleepy town adjoining Pune into a manufacturing hub.
On reunification, senior NCP leader Nawab Malik said: “We have been making efforts to narrow the rift within the family. We are together and will try to ensure that everyone comes together. Let us see how the situation unfolds.”
A senior NCP (SP) leader in Pune, close to Sharad Pawar, said the choice of political alignment was a key hurdle in unity talks. “Ajit Pawar is firm that a united NCP should be part of the ruling NDA, but Sule is not keen. Besides, the question of who would be the supreme leader of the NCP — Ajit or Supriya — also needs to be resolved,”
the leader said.