Following a series of political realignments in recent days, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) joined hands to contest the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections in the Pawars’ home district.
“The deal between the NCP and NCP(SP) has been sealed for the Pune civic body polls. An official announcement in this regard will be made later in the day,” said an office-bearer of the NCP’s city unit.
Local leaders of both parties held a meeting with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar late last night. “The pre-poll alliance has been finalised, with the NCP contesting 125 seats, while the NCP(SP) will contest 40 seats,” he said.
NCP(SP) leader Rohit Pawar said, “The party has forged an alliance with the NCP for elections to the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic bodies. This alliance is limited to only two civic bodies and it is as per the wish of the local party workers and leaders.” On Sunday, Ajit had announced that his party would contest the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation polls with the NCP(SP).
The NCP(SP) will contest on its own symbol, Rohit said, adding, “The pre-poll alliance is meant to take on the powerful BJP. We will contest on our respective party symbols.”
Rohit ruled out the possibility of the parties merging after the election, stressing that the alliance is only in two civic bodies or otherwise it would have been across the state.
Ajit had reached out to the NCP(SP) for a pre-poll alliance after the BJP declared that it would contest only in alliance with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena while keeping out its Mahayuti ally NCP.
Ajit had also reached out to the Congress for a pre-poll alliance. However, while the Congress refused to join hands with his party, the NCP(SP) still pursued the alliance as most local leaders were in favour of it. Refusing a tie-up with the NCP, Prashant Jagtap, who was the Pune city NCP(SP) chief, resigned from the post and joined the Congress on Friday.
Nevertheless, the NCP did not allot seats to the Sharad Pawar-led party as expected, forcing it to return to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance. On Sunday, however, it held a meeting with Ajit to discuss reviving the alliance. The NCP(SP) eventually agreed to contest fewer seats but said that it would fight the polls on its symbol of ‘man blowing a trumpet’ as against the NCP’s demand of contesting on its ‘clock’ symbol.
The deadline to file nominations for the Pune civic body polls ends on Tuesday afternoon. The polling will take place on January 15, and the results will be declared on January 16.
The undivided NCP was in power in the PMC from 2007 to 2017 but lost to the BJP in 2017 and became the main Opposition party in the civic body.