Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP SP) leader Azam Pansare said on Saturday that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar met him after a long time. Pansare’s statement came amid buzz over a possible alliance between the two rivals for the upcoming civic polls.
After holding the meeting with Ajit Pawar, Pansare told news agency ANI, “We wish to have an alliance [between NCP SP and NCP]… He told me that a decision will be taken soon.”
“Ajit Pawar came to meet me after a long time. We had a lot of discussions on general issues…,” Pansare said.
Alliance or no alliance?
Different leaders have been issuing different statements regarding the “temporary alliance” between Sharad Pawar’s and Ajit Pawar’s NCP factions.
NCP-SCP leader Ankush Kakade on Tuesday said that the Maha Vikas Agadhi partners, along with the temporarily united NCP will be deciding on a “seat sharing formula” soon.
On December 23, Ankush Kakade said that the Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) partners, along with the temporarily united NCP will be deciding on a “seat sharing formula” soon.
“The Nationalist Congress Party- Sharadchandra Pawar and Nationalist Congress Party- Ajit Pawar have decided to contest the upcoming municipal elections together,” the NCP-SCP leader told ANI.
Kakade said they will hold talks with the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) as well.
“We have a meeting with our other partners this afternoon. No discussions have been held on seat sharing. We will speak with Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), and all four parties will meet to discuss the seat-sharing formula. Ajit Pawar’s faction and our faction’s ideology are the same,” he said.
However, NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule said on Wednesday that her party won’t forge an alliance with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP for the Pune civic polls until all the doubts and apprehensions of her party workers are addressed.
Speaking to reporters in Pune, Sule said they are in touch with the NCP, and potential repercussions will also be deliberated upon if both NCP groups decide to join hands.
No alliance has been finalised yet, she clarified.
Meanwhile, the Congress, which has been an ally of the UBT Sena, is yet to jump on to the alliance for the BMC polls, but sees political capital in the coming together of the Thackeray cousins claiming that this is the end of the Mayahyuti (NDA alliance) in the state.
Will Ajit Pawar’s NCP join MVA?
When questioned about whether Ajit Pawar would join the MVA, NCP-SCP leader Ankush Kakade said that both parties have a united ideological stance, but nothing is certain about what Ajit Pawar will do.
“What happens in the future, I don’t know. What Ajit Pawar does, I don’t know, but our ideology is the same as Phule and Ambedkar,” he said.
BMC Polls
Elections to 29 civic corporations in Maharashtra, including the Pune Municipal Corporation, will be held on January 15, and votes will be counted the next day.
In the recently concluded municipal council and nagar panchayat elections in Maharashtra, the NCP secured 966 seats, compared to 256 by the NCP (SP).
