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.
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 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. Those who attended the meeting included Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde and Chhagan Bhujbal.
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. 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. Reports said leaders from the Sharad Pawar faction have also dismissed the possibility. 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”. “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 BJP had dismissed the rally as “poorly attended” and claimed that people had started leaving as Congress’s Rahul Gandhi started his speech.
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.
