Mumbai: Amid uncertainty over a possible reunion between the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) following the death of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, leaders from both camps have now ruled out any such move.
Speaking to the media, NCP (Sharad Pawar) MP Supriya Sule said the issue of a merger between the Sharad Pawar-led faction and the Ajit Pawar-led faction had been discussed earlier with former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who died in a plane crash on 28 January.
“Decisions taken by Ajit Dada are now gone with him. Now that my brother is no more, what’s the use of talking about it (the merger)?” she said.
Her nephew and NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar reiterated Sule’s position.
“The topic is over now. We held meetings with Ajit dada. Whether to go with the NDA or whether Ajit Dada would exit the alliance and take the fight to the streets—this was what we discussed with him,” Rohit said.
“But now that Ajit dada is gone, discussing this is irrelevant. For us, the merger issue ended the moment he passed away,” he added.
Rohit said leaders from the other NCP faction were raising the merger issue “only to oppose “Pawar saheb, Supriya Sule and me and remain politically relevant and appear powerful”.
He added that meetings on the issue used to take place at Jayant Patil’s residence, a senior NCP (SP) leader—and claimed that CCTV footage from minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha’s house, the BJP leader and Maharashtra Minister for Skill Development, whose residence is located opposite Patil’s, could serve as proof.
On Monday night, after a meeting of NCP MLAs convened by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, the party’s state president Sunil Tatkare told the media that a merger was not on the agenda and that MLAs had been instructed not to speak about it.
Immediately after Ajit Pawar’s death, several leaders from the NCP (SP) said he had been discussing a possible reunion of the two party factions. Some, including Anil Deshmukh, former home minister of Maharashtra, claimed that a merger was his “last wish” and should be honoured. Leaders from the Ajit Pawar-led faction, however, were more guarded. Praful Patel, who was the former Union civil aviation minister, among others, denied that Ajit Pawar had held any such discussions before his death.
For months, there was widespread speculation that the two factions of NCP would merge. After a poor showing in the 2024 Assembly elections—with Sharad Pawar’s faction winning just 10 seats in the 288-member house—the party’s fortunes began to decline.
In December 2025, the Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions contested the municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad together, but couldn’t take control of either municipal bodies.
The two sides planned to fight the February Zilla Parishad (district council) polls on a common platform, using the same symbol—the clock—and there was talk of a formal merger after those elections. However, the death of Ajit Pawar on 28 January halted those discussions.
Sharad Pawar told reporters the merger had progressed and was due to be announced on 12 February, but both factions have now suspended talks.
(Edited by Shashank Kishan)
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