As merger buzz fades, NCP plans show of strength

MUMBAI: A day after speculation over merger talks between the two NCP factions was laid to rest, the Sunetra Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is gearing up for a show of strength on Monday, when Union home minister Amit Shah visits Pune to inaugurate a memorial to the late NCP president and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar

MUMBAI: A day after speculation over merger talks between the two NCP factions was laid to rest, the Sunetra Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is gearing up for a show of strength on Monday, when Union home minister Amit Shah visits Pune to inaugurate a memorial to the late NCP president and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.

Shah will inaugurate a statue of Ajit Pawar at the Pune Zilla Parishad premises, where the event is likely to be attended by NCP legislators, ministers, MPs and party functionaries.

On Friday, Parth Pawar, Sunetra Pawar’s son and the party’s national general secretary, asked NCP MLAs to mobilise party workers for the event and met with MLAs from Pune to coordinate the mobilisation.

The development comes a day after Supriya Sule, national working president of the NCP (SP), and Maharashtra NCP president Sunil Tatkare dismissed merger talks. “The party leadership wants to make a statement by demonstrating the NCP’s strength during the inauguration,” said an NCP MLA.

The NCP’s show of strength assumes significance following the NCP (SP)’s recent electoral success in the Pune Graduates’ constituency, where the party’s candidate Harshada Jadhav-Deshmukh was elected as an MLC. Harshada defeated BJP’s Smita Jadhav by 9,928 votes. The constituency was with the NCP but the party decided to give it to the BJP as part of a seat sharing arrangement. Arun Lad, representing the undivided NCP, had won the seat in the previous legislative council election held in 2000.

On Thursday, Sule categorically ruled out any merger talks, saying the issue had ended for her with the Ajit Pawar’s death. Hours earlier, Tatkare had said he saw no substance in the speculation over merger talks.

Meanwhile, there was also buzz that NCP national working president Praful Patel had met Sule in New Delhi, where they were to attend a parliamentary committee meeting. Sule said no such meeting took place.

Speculation about a merger had gathered momentum after a delegation of six senior NCP leaders met Shah in New Delhi on November 1. They are believed to have indicated their support for a reunification of the two NCP factions.

Amit Shah will be visiting Maharashtra for two days. On Sunday, he will lay the foundation stone for a cooperative industrial unit in Talegaon Dabhade before visiting the Bharat Forge facility in Mundhwa, Pune. He will stay overnight in Pune, where he is expected to meet senior leaders and office-bearers of the BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena, all three allies in the Mahayuti government. On Monday, he will unveil a statue of Ajit Pawar at the Pune Zilla Parishad premises.