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.
Shiv Sena is trying to ride on two boats, that of Modi-Shah version of Hindutva, and Secularism. It will invite ridicule this way as an ideologically confused and weak party. If at this juncture the congress and NCP withdraw support, SS will be finished as a credible political party. So SS should quickly take a major decision, and should just as quickly announce it, that it believes in SOFT HINDUTVA.
The stakes are too high for the three coalition partners to allow it to founder on something as remote from the day to day concerns of ordinary Maharashtrians as the CAB. So long as the shared promises contained in the CMP are respected, there are bound to be issues associated with ideology where the three parties may retain their different points of view. A formal coordination mechanism would help.
No. The number of illegal Bangladeshis in Mumbai and other cities and towns of Maharashtra make it very relevant.