The NCP or Nationalist Congress Party was founded in 1999 by Sharad Pawar after he quit the Indian National Congress (INC) along with Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar. While the NCP started as a national party with values of ‘Gandhian secularism’ and ‘progressive and modern progress’, its biggest electoral success has been in Maharashtra, Pawar’s home state. In 2023, the Election Commission withdrew the party’s status as a ‘national party’ as the NCP could no longer meet the criteria of such a designation.
As of 2024, the party is split into two factions — one led by founder Sharad Pawar and another by his nephew Ajit Pawar. The faction led by Ajit is in power in Maharashtra along with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde). This faction today is knonw as the Nationalist Congress Party, having been granted the original party name and symbol by the Supreme Court. The other faction is called the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar). Other important leaders include Jayant Patil, Supriya Sule, and Rajesh Tope.
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