NCP rift deepens as senior leaders meet Amit Shah without Sunetra, Parth Pawar

After the NCP core committee meeting, Tatkare told reporters there was no talk of a merger with NCP (SP).

Veteran leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Sunday evening and expressed their unhappiness over the leadership style of party chief Sunetra Pawar and her son, Rajya Sabha MP Parth Pawar, exacerbating the ongoing unrest within the party.

Sunetra and Parth had voiced their opposition to the reunification a week ago at a meeting with Shah in Delhi. (ANI)

Leaders who met Shah included NCP national working president Praful Patel, Maharashtra unit chief Sunil Tatkare, senior ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Hasan Mushrif, and senior leaders Dilip Walse Patil and Dhananjay Munde, among others. These senior leaders had rallied behind Ajit Pawar when he decided to split the NCP in 2023.

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While certain leaders said that there was some talk with the home minister about broaching a merger with the NCP (SP), a senior leader categorically denied it. Sunetra and Parth had voiced their opposition to the reunification a week ago at a meeting with Shah in Delhi.

Additionally, people aware of developments said, when the leaders who met Shah on Sunday, also conveyed at the NCP’s core committee meeting later on Monday, that the BJP top brass is not happy with the way their alliance partner is conducting things internally. It was also a way for these leaders to convey to Sunetra Pawar that they shouldn’t be complacent and ensure that they take these six people along.

While party spokesperson Umesh Patil described the claim of a rift “incorrect, baseless and misleading” -- alleging that certain forces were attempting to manufacture a narrative of internal difference -- the absence of both Sunetra and Parth from Sunday’s meeting added grist to the rumour mill, coming just hours before NCP’s core committee meeting, convened by Sunetra in Mumbai.

According to insiders, the leaders met at Bhujbal’s official residence soon after returning from Delhi before proceeding to the core committee meeting at Devgiri, the deputy chief minister’s official residence, in the evening.

“The leaders who met Shah had earlier met chief minister Devendra Fadnavis (on October 25) opposing the merger, which makes their meeting with Shah politically significant,” pointed out a senior NCP leader.

“The fact that the Union home minister is entertaining them also makes the development important in the backdrop of an open rift within the NCP,” a second NCP leader told HT.

Later in the day, a statement issued by the party spokesperson said that during their meeting with Shah to discuss issues confronting NCP following Ajit Pawar’s death, Sunetra Pawar and Parth had informed the Union home minister that a delegation of senior party leaders would meet him, and asked him to make time for them.

“The leaders also raised issues concerning their respective constituencies during the meeting with Shah. The interaction included informal discussions and an exchange of views between leaders of the Mahayuti alliance partners,” the statement said. It added that reports suggesting Sunetra and Parth Pawar “had been deliberately kept out of the meeting were part of an attempt by unseen forces to create an artificial narrative of a leadership crisis.”

Core committee meeting

Meanwhile, after the core committee meeting, Tatkare addressed the media saying the legislative party meeting would be convened on Tuesday.

He denied that any talks of a merger occurred, saying instead that the leaders discussed the party’s functioning, organizational structure, appointments and challenges. This comes on the back of veteran leaders in the party purportedly being unhappy with Parth gradually taking control of the party by handpicking leaders for key positions.

“We discussed the functioning of the party and how to remain united under the leadership of Sunetra Vahini (Pawar),” Tatkare told reporters outside Devgiri bungalow.

“There was no question of a merger,” he said, adding NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar had put an end to that possibility. “We had already clarified our position after the last core committee meeting,” he insisted.