Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Amidst continuous denial by both the factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of reunification, efforts are on to bring the two factions together and join the NDA umbrella with the intervention by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A day after the veteran leader Sharad Pawar joined the opposition camp to protest against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and his “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) of electoral rolls, the NCP sources said some of the party leaders from the Ajit Pawar faction met Mr Shah in Delhi on Monday seeking his intervention to re-unite the factions led by Mr Sharad Pawar and Ms Sunetra Pawar and stay in the NDA camp, party sources said.
The sources said Mr 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 rumours 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.
NCP spokesperson Umesh Patil said attempts were 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 said. “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 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’s Mahayuti 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.