‘Our two NCPs are together as of now, can’t say about the future’

NCP's Supriya Sule is uncertain about future alliances after local polls, criticizing BJP's poaching of opposition leaders. No clear plans yet.

Will the two NCPs, who have tied up for the local polls, reconcile? Mumbai NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule, when asked this, was non-committal. In an interview to Shailesh Gaikwad and Faisal Malik, she said, “At the moment, we are together for the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad civic polls. Nothing is decided about the future. We don’t know whether we will contest even the coming zilla parishad elections together.”

**EDS: SCREENSHOT VIA PTI VIDEOS** Mumbai: NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule addresses a press conference, in Mumbai, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (PTI Photo)(PTI09_26_2024_000059B) (PTI)

Sule, 56, also slammed the BJP for poaching leaders from opposition parties. “Sixty percent of the BJP’s decision-makers are people imported from the Congress or the NCP,” she said. “The votes they are getting now are because of these people. Where is the real BJP?”

Excerpts from an interview:

The ongoing local polls are witnessing strange alliances. Everybody is going with everybody. Even the BJP and Congress were together in the Ambernath civic polls. How do you view this?

It is disturbing and chaotic. I can’t blame others and not myself since I am also part of the system. The real issues in such a situation are completely lost. I don’t know how it will pan out for the future of the state.

This is also the season of reunions. The Thackeray cousins came together in Mumbai, the Pawar family in Pune.

When our party workers saw that Ajit Pawar was fighting all the seats on his own in Pune, they said it was in the larger interest of the city that we work together. They said if we had worked well earlier, why not now? And that is how it started.

So, is this the beginning of the political reconciliation process?

Well, as a family we were always together though we have had very strong political differences lately. The alliance is right now limited to the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad elections. We are not even sure whether we will tie up for the zilla parishad polls. We will discuss it when those elections are announced.

But you aren’t ruling out a reunion?

As I said, we don’t even know if we will fight the next phase of the local polls together. After that, there are no elections till 2029. So let’s wait and watch.

There have been speculations that you will join the union government as a minister after the merger of the two parties.

I never react to speculations. There have been speculations for 11 years that we would go with the BJP. Stories are planted periodically. No offer has been made by either side. We are very happy where we are.

Wouldn’t it be a good move for the party’s political future?

We will see. All parties keep introspecting about what they should and shouldn’t do. Let’s give it time.

What happened with your party and your allies in the MVA? Everything just fizzled out after the assembly election defeat in 2024, and since then everything has gone downhill.

We were fragmented, which was unfortunate. It was the strategy used by our opponents to weaken us. The BJP has taken so many people from the Congress and NCP that 60% of its decision makers are from these two parties. They poached people who had a strong presence anyway. Their votes got transferred to the BJP. If you remove those persons from the BJP, where will the party be?

Also, after this, the BJP for the first time saw their offices being broken (over the scramble for party tickets in the civic polls). It is very unfortunate how politics in Maharashtra is changing. It is not good for any society or for democracy.

What is the opposition’s plan then?

We have to keep fighting. We never get carried away by success or give up because of losses.

*BJP leaders have been threatening Ajit Pawar, citing the ongoing probes into his alleged scams. Did you have an ‘I had told you so’ moment with your cousin, reminding him that he had been advised not to ally with the BJP?

This is not the time to get into that. The war of words in Pune is unfortunate because the BJP’s credibility is at stake. The BJP had made the allegations at that time. They should now come clean and admit that they were wrong. What is happening now actually shows the BJP in poor light.

Why is your party contesting only 11 seats?

We are contesting 11 seats and supporting three other candidates besides being in an alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS. We tried very hard to remain in an alliance with the Congress along with the Shiv Sena-UBT and MNS. Our entire agenda was to fight together as the MVA. Unfortunately, that did not work out.

MVA would have had a better impact in Mumbai.

It would have had a huge impact. We tried our best. Sanjay Raut tried. I tried. We were keen that the Congress and others should go together.

Was the Congress not keen? Uddhav Thackeray is blaming the party.

He is absolutely right. You have to ask the Congress why they didn’t do it.

What is going to happen in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad?

Our alliance (with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP) will do well in both the cities.

Do you see any realignment after the local body polls?

I don’t see any possibility at this moment. Even the Congress and we used to fight separately but would run the state government together after that. The MVA will keep fighting together.