NCP's Sharad, Ajit 'Pawar-ing' Up For Family Reunion Before BMC Election

Squeezed out, it seems, by their respective alliance bosses, Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party factions are drifting toward a family reunion and political realignment in Maharashtra, weeks before the next round of federal and state polls - in 2029.

On Friday afternoon uncle and nephew were on the verge of completing seat-sharing talks for the Pune Municipal Corporation, which is one of 29 civic bodies voting next month, including the Rs 74,000-crore Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

Ajit Pawar - who broke from his uncle's side in July 2023 and led 18 NCP MLAs into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, and was made a Deputy Chief Minister for his troubles - has found himself sidelined within that alliance, i.e., the BJP-led Mahayuti that rules the state.

Pawar junior nominating ex-minister Nawab Malik as the face of his NCP's Mumbai election campaign was met with a firm 'no' by the BJP; the party pointed to alleged links to mob boss Dawood Ibrahim.

But the real reason, sources told NDTV, was that the support Pawar's NCP gets from Muslim and Dalit voters risked alienating the BJP's hardcore Hindu base.

Sharad Pawar, meanwhile, has found himself a third wheel in another family reunion -Thackeray cousins Uddhav and Raj, at odds for 20 years, after Shiv Sena patriarch and founder Bal Thackeray died, bonded over the Marathi language row and announced an alliance.

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Thackeray's Sena (or what is left of it, after Eknath Shinde's 2022 split) remains, it insists, part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi opposition bloc alongside Sharad Pawar's NCP and the Congress.

But neither of the latter are willing, at this stage, to work with firebrand Raj Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The Congress has said it will contest the BMC election on its own and Sharad Pawar's NCP was eased out of a voice of its own in MVA seat-share talks.

All of this means, funnily enough, both alliances have a wary eye on the NCPs.

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Does that equal a Pawar reunion? Or Is Ajit Pawar planning a 'go it alone' plan?

There is buzz pointing to the latter. Sources told NDTV defeat in this election will not be seen as a setback; the idea is to assess the strength of the Ajit Pawar NCP in a solo contest.

In the 2024 state election his NCP won 41 of the 59 seats it contested - an excellent return. That was months after the party was routed in the Lok Sabha poll, winning only one of four seats.

A similarly strong result could convince Ajit Pawar to consider a 'ghar wapsi' of sorts, though that would require extensive negotiation to keep each faction's ministers and MLAs happy.

On Thursday night - at Anushaktinagar, the Assembly constituency held by Sana Malik, Nawab Malik's daughter - Ajit Pawar met Rohit Pawar, Sharad Pawar's grandnephew. A deal - for the Pune Municipal Corporation election - was struck, though not yet for the sharing of seats.

But a key point is a statement calling for the Sharad Pawar faction to return to using its 'clock' symbol, which was awarded to the Ajit Pawar group after a squabble reached the Supreme Court. "... there is no other symbol. Fighting on the 'clock' symbol means contesting as the real NCP," Anil Patil said.

That statement has fuelled speculation the Pawars are writing a reunion script.

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