One NCP keen, the other cautious—the power play behind merger talks after Ajit Pawar

The two NCPs, which had as good as united ahead of zilla parishad polls, had been talking about coming together for good officially after that election under leadership of Ajit Pawar.

Featured illustration: Deepakshi Sharma | ThePrint

Mumbai: There was already a possible churn taking shape in Maharashtra politics when Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar lost his life in a plane crash this week.

That churn, however, would likely have been much smoother with its main architect, deputy CM Pawar, around. The two NCPs—which had as good as united in the process of the upcoming zilla parishad polls—were talking about coming together for good officially after that election under the undisputed leadership of Ajit Pawar, party sources told ThePrint. 

His death has, however, cast a fog around these plans with leaders from the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) strongly pushing for a reunion, and those from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP adopting a cautious stance. The latter say their first priority is to fill the empty post of the deputy CM and the party’s legislative leader. 

Ajit Pawar’s absence means the power equation between the senior leaders of the two NCPs, if they come together, is uncertain. 

On Saturday, NCP founder Sharad Pawar distanced himself from talks of a merger and indicated that Ajit Pawar’s death may now stall the process.

“For the last four months Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil had several meetings on a possible reunion. Now there is an unfortunate accident that has happened, and it seems that the talks could be discontinued,” he told reporters.

But leaders from the Sharad Pawar-led faction are keen on seeing the plans through, hoping to gain control over the breakaway faction and rebuild themselves after their party being repeatedly marginalised in different elections since Ajit Pawar’s rebellion in 2023. 

But, those from the Ajit Pawar camp are worried about losing their power and position in case of a merger, especially after their leader’s death that has left key posts in the party and the government vacant—that of the party’s national president, deputy CM, finance minister and one more cabinet berth. The first two were held by Ajit Pawar, while the last one fell vacant in December when MLA Manikrao Kokate had to step down after a Nashik sessions court upheld his conviction in a 1995 case. 

“Right from NCP state president Shashikant Shinde to Jayant Patil, Rajesh Tope, Anil Deshmukh and Ankush Kakde, all leaders from the Sharad Pawar NCP have been articulating that a merger plan had been worked out and must go through. For them, this is the chance to get control over the breakaway faction,” political commentator Abhay Deshpande told ThePrint. 

“However, they will not be able to do that without joining the Mahayuti in power because no sitting MLA will leave power to go and sit in the Opposition,” he added. 

Senior leaders from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP—Sunil Tatkare, Praful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal—met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday, mainly to secure the party’s claim over the three important government posts within the three-party Mahayuti government comprising the BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. 

Bhujbal said the leaders have decided to name Ajit Pawar’s wife, Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar, in his place. A meeting of the legislative party will be held at 2 pm Saturday, where the MLAs are expected to officially elect Sunetra as the legislative party leader, following which she is likely to be sworn in as Deputy CM.

Sharad Pawar has maintained that he had no knowledge of Sunetra Pawar being chosen to take over as Deputy CM. He said, it is “their (Ajit Pawar-led NCP) party’s internal decision”. 

“Leaders from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP are reluctant to address the possibility of a merger because they will lose their command and their position. So they want to first set internal structures in place and have their leader and deputy CM,” Deshpande added. 

Talks of a merger 

There had been multiple meetings between Ajit Pawar and leaders of the Sharad Pawar NCP, including one between the party’s state president Shashikant Shinde and senior MLA Jayant Patil about working out a reunion, leaders from the Sharad Pawar-led party confirmed on record. 

“For the upcoming zilla parishad elections, most of their (Sharad Pawar-led NCP) candidates are contesting on our symbol across western Maharashtra, so practically, leaders as well as voters are as good as seeing the two NCPs as one. This was to be formalised after the polls,” a source from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP told ThePrint. 

The polls are to be held on 7 February. 

The idea within the Aiit Pawar-led NCP was that the merged NCP would have stayed with the Mahayuti under him. Baramati MP Supriya Sule, the daughter of Sharad Pawar, would have stayed active in the Centre, the source quoted earlier, added. 

Sharad Pawar has always been known to be averse to a direct alliance with the BJP. However, he might have been open to accepting Ajit Pawar’s leadership and stepping back from politics, the source said. “At least this is what was our understanding of how things were to move forward.” 

Sharad Pawar’s Rajya Sabha term is scheduled to end in April. The 85-year-old leader is also said to be suffering from some health issues, and had stayed away from campaigning for the municipal corporation polls and the upcoming rural body polls.

While the immediate Pawar family, still in the mourning period, has refrained from making any statements, senior leaders of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP have gone on record to confirm talks of a merger, and saying that the reunion must go through. 

“It was Ajit dada’s final wish before he died. It must be fulfilled,” said Anil Deshmukh, a senior leader from the Sharad Pawar-led party, speaking to reporters at the party’s head office in Mumbai. 

“Ajit dada had a heartfelt desire to bring the two parties together. There were many discussions about it and Ajit dada had said both parties should 100 percent come together and he started taking steps in that direction,” Deshmukh said, adding that questions about who will be the deputy CM, other ministers and so on can be addressed later. 

“The final rites just took place yesterday. Such political meetings don’t happen immediately after something like this,” Deshmukh said. 

The leader, however, refused to comment on whether the merged NCP will ally with the BJP and stay with the Mahayuti. 

Speaking to reporters in Baramati on Thursday, Jayant Patil, MLA from the Sharad Pawar-led NCP said, while there were a lot of meetings about a reunion of the two NCPs, there was a specific meeting on 16 January, the day of the results to municipal corporation polls, when some key decisions were taken. The two NCPs had contested the civic poll in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad together and lost. 

“On 17th, there was a meeting in the presence of Pawarsaheb (Sharad Pawar) too. Then work for the Zilla Parishad elections started,” Patil said. 

‘Priority is to appoint deputy CM, legislative party leader’

When reporters asked Bhujbal about talks of a reunion between the two NCPs and some leaders expressing such wishes, Bhujbal said, “I don’t know the wishes of any leaders because they haven’t told me anything. The question that we have before us today is to elect our legislative party leader. Everything else will come later. We need to have a deputy CM to run the government first.”

Party sources said, with there being multiple senior contenders such as Patel, Tatkare and Bhujbal, the only leadership that can be acceptable to all will be one from Ajit Pawar’s own family. With his sons, Parth and Jay, young and inexperienced, wife Sunetra is the only option. 

In case a merger goes through in the future, leaders of the Ajit Pawar faction want the ultimate leadership to be from their side, making Sunetra Pawar’s swift election as legislative party leader and deputy CM before moving on to any talks about a reunion all the more important. 

“Our MLAs would not have accepted the leadership of Supriya Sule. And the only other person from the Pawar family active in politics is Rohit Pawar, who is also much junior to leaders like Tatkare and Praful Patel,” one MLA from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP told ThePrint. 

Rohit Pawar, grand nephew of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, is a two-term MLA from the Karjat Jamkhed constituency. 

The above-mentioned MLA also said that if the two NCPs are merged, there will be a larger pool of candidates for the state finance minister’s post. “Sunil Tatkare has handled the finance department before, but he is now an MP, not an MLA. Meanwhile, Jayant Patil from the Sharad Pawar faction could be a serious contender having been in charge of the department multiple times in the past.”

Political commentator Deshpande said, a lot also depends on what the BJP wants. 

“The BJP seemed to be keen on the reunion when Ajit Pawar was around because it would have been under his leadership and he was already part of Mahayuti. The question is, does the BJP want the Sharad Pawar-led NCP to be a part of Mahayuti now? Will the faction’s eight MPs bring more stability to the Modi government at the Centre? Or do they see it as something that might strengthen a potential Opposition?” Deshpande said. “All of this remains to be seen.”

The story has been updated to reflect Sharad Pawar’s statements made Saturday 

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)