Day After Opposition Protest, Talk Of NCP Merger At Amit Shah Meeting: Sources

Efforts are in progress to bring together the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party under the NDA fold, sources said a day after Sharad Pawar joined the Opposition protests on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and his voter revision process. The matter was discussed when a group of leaders from the Ajit Pawar faction met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi today, sources said. 

Sources said Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP leadership urged senior NCP leaders at the Delhi meeting to resolve internal differences and put their house in order to strengthen the NDA. The discussions primarily focused on the future of the NCP without Ajit Pawar, with the BJP conveying concern over how the party is currently being run.

While the high-level meeting triggered rumors of the two NCP factions merging to consolidate the NDA, sources firmly dismissed any speculation of a reunification.

Few in the NCP are on board with the idea, sources said, and the two key leaders of the faction -- Sunetra and Parth Pawar -- were not part of the delegation. Those who attended the meeting included Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde and Chhagan Bhujbal.

A core committee meeting at the home of Sunetra Pawar held this evening had an agenda of firmly opposing the reunification of the NCP factions.

Reports said leaders from the Sharad Pawar faction have also dismissed the possibility. 

Neither faction of the NCP appears on board with a reunification plan.

NCP spokesperson Umesh Patil said attempts are being made to give an "unnecessary political twist" to the meeting and "create a narrative of internal differences and lack of coordination within the party".

"Do not politicise formal meetings between leaders of alliance partners. Speculation should not be portrayed as fact," he was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India. 

"The NCP is an important constituent of the Mahayuti alliance and remains united under the leadership of Sunetra Pawar," he had added. 

The two factions were expected to merge ahead of the Ajit Pawar's death in January. Several NCP leaders including Sharad Pawar, had said that Ajit Pawar was expected to announce the merger on February 12. 

Later, his cousin and Sharad Pawar faction leader Supriya Sule indicated that with Ajit Pawar's death, that door has closed. 

"What is there to talk about now that dada (Ajit Pawar) is no more?" she had said days after Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar stepped into his shoes and took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister in the Maharashtra government. 

The talk of merger resumes as the Opposition is piling on the pressure on the issue of Gyanesh Kumar. On Sunday, the Opposition held a massive rally at Delhi's iconic Ramlila Maidan, which was attended by the key leaders of the INDIA bloc. 

The BJP had dismissed the rally as "poorly attended" and claimed that people had started leaving as Congress's Rahul Gandhi started his speech.