Pune civic polls: As NCP talks hit dead-end, Sharad Pawar’s party rushes back to MVA

MP Supriya Sule, the working president of NCP (SP), confirmed the development. “Yes, our alliance discussion with the NCP has broken down. There will be no alliance,” Sule told The Indian Express on Saturday.

THE TALKS between the NCP and the NCP (SP) over a possible alliance for the Pune Municipal Corporation elections have fallen through, with the Sharad Pawar-led party rushing to renew ties with the Opposition MVA and resuming discussions Friday evening.

The discussions reportedly broke down after NCP insisted that NCP (SP) candidates contest on their ‘clock’ symbol. The NCP (SP) refused, contending that theirs was a separate party with a separate identity.

“We had not declared plans of contesting PMC elections with NCP. The NCP had approached us and we conveyed to them that NCP (SP) will contest civic polls with partners of Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) which are MVA partners,” said NCP (SP) spokesperson Ankush Kakade.

Incidentally, an NCP (SP) delegation had met NCP chief Ajit Pawar on their plans of seats in seat-sharing arrangement but the NCP instead offered very less seats which were not acceptable for NCP (SP).

Kakade said NCP (SP) always wanted to contest civic polls in Pune in alliance with MVA partners but Congress had sud­denly decided to contest independently. MVA leaders from Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) held seat-sharing discussions at a Pune hotel late Friday. “Our relations with MVA are intact… our discussi­ons have been going on,” Sule said.

However, NCP state president Sunil Tatkare said, the discussions with NCP (SP) are still going on. “As per my information, discussions are still underway. Our president Ajit Pawar has been handling Pune city affairs since 1999 and even now, he is holding discussions with NCP (SP) leaders,” Tatkare said.

Pune city Congress president Arvind Shinde said the MVA discussions have got underway. “Besides Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders attended the meetings yesterday and today,” he said. Congress said of 165 PMC seats, each of the three parties will contest the same 50 to 55 seats. “All three are equally strong. Each one will get same number seats,” he said.

Asked about possible entry of MNS, Shinde said, “MNS is not part of MVA… We have told Sena as well about it.”