NCP-SP leader Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre)
Almost two-and-a-half years after the party split and Ajit Pawar joined the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by the Deputy Chief Minister and his uncle Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) have reunited for civic body elections in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, which is considered their turf.
Both parties were careful to emphasise that the alliance was for next month’s municipal corporation polls in these two civic bodies, and there were no plans to extend beyond this local arrangement. In Pune, the NCP will contest 125 seats and the NCP (SP) 40 seats, an indication of their political strength.
How did the alliance come about?
The civic elections are being viewed more as a tussle between members of the ruling alliance to consolidate their grassroots strength, than a contest between the Mahayuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which was swept away in the first two rounds of the local polls.
For the corporation elections scheduled for January 15, the BJP has struck a pact with the Eknath Shinde-led Sena, leaving the NCP to fend for itself. At a time when the BJP is building on its statewide dominance and sweeping the local polls too, the common objective of both its ally NCP — a stronger BJP means less leverage for it in the alliance — and the Opposition NCP (SP) is to stop its expansion, especially in their stronghold of Pune.
That prompted the Ajit Pawar-led party to approach the NCP (SP) to band together for the civic body polls on their turf. Though the two NCP parties had a bitter fallout during their split in July 2023, their workers claim an equal, emotional connection to both the Pawars and realised that only as a unified force could they check the BJP’s expansion.
According to party insiders, there was a demand from the workers of both parties who claim equal emotional connection to the two Pawars. For the NCP(SP) workers, the tie-up provides a potential respite from continued electoral setbacks and keeps their political aspirations alive.
What does this reunion mean for local politics?
While both parties will use their own symbols, the reunited NCP will have more teeth and will be a strong barrier against the BJP crashing through in its traditional stronghold. Both parties also hope that this will put an end to their local leadership shifting to the BJP, which they have struggled against in recent weeks.
While several leaders and workers of the parties hold out hope that this may be the first step towards a reunification, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew, ruled it out, telling reporters on Monday, “This alliance is limited to only two civic bodies and it is as per the wish of the local party workers and leaders.”
However, there are several hurdles towards that. First, given the disparities in the strengths of the two parties, reunification can only happen if Ajit Pawar is accepted as the leader of the unified party. Differences over this had contributed to the schism in the first place and there are no indications that things have changed since then in the Sharad Pawar camp.
Second, civic polls often tend to throw up odd combinations since the tie-ups are decided with hyperlocal dynamics and political interests in mind. In the first phase of the local polls, the Shiv Sena and Sena (UBT) came together in a few places to take on the BJP, while in some places, Eknath Shinde’s party joined hands with the Congress.
However, whether the door remains open for a realignment in state politics as far as the two NCPs are concerned will depend on the outcome in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. If they fare well, there is bound to be a demand for a similar arrangement for the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections in late January.