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.
1. It is natural that two regional parties TMC & NCP and Communist Party of India (CPI) all feel urge to retain their ‘national party’ status. In this context my observation is that in the existing scenario regional parties, especially Trinamool Congress, SP, BSP, TDP, JD(S), TRS, BJD, & NCP have an unfinished task and a wish to defeat BJP. Before the Lok Sabha election all of them were exploring possibilities of formation of a Federal or Third Front. But after 2019 mandate in favour of BJP, all of them have to make efforts to retain their votes share in their State and at same time make efforts for acceptance as parties with a national presence. 3. Reality is that regional parties have no views or outlook on many national issues. If they wish to form a grand alliance, they do not a common programme to deal with many national issues. Truth is that head of these parties, like Smt Banerjee of TMC or Smt Mayawati of BSP wish to remain in power or to seize power in their respective State and at the same time each wishes to have a say in national politics. How far is it realistic to have national ambitions? Truth is also that these parties have neither a national vision nor a national presence. Therefore, citizen-voters lime me are and will always be having serious questions about governance issues. It is for the heads of regional parties to prove that they can and will handle national issues.