Sunetra meets Prashant Kishor amid NCP tussle

At the two-hour-long meeting, Pawar, accompanied by her elder son and Rajya Sabha MP Parth, and Kishor are believed to have discussed plans to strengthen the party’s base across Maharashtra

Mumbai: Amid widespread speculation of a tussle with her party’s senior leadership, Nationalist Congress Party chief and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar, met political strategist Prashant Kishor on Monday in Mumbai.

Sunetra meets Prashant Kishor amid NCP tussle. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

At the two-hour-long meeting, Pawar, accompanied by her elder son and Rajya Sabha MP Parth, and Kishor are believed to have discussed plans to strengthen the party’s base across Maharashtra, with the strategist making a preliminary presentation on how this can be achieved.

Until recently, the NCP used the services of Delhi-based strategist Naresh Arora’s company DesignBoxed. It had been Arora’s idea to soften the late Ajit Pawar’s image by putting him in a pink jacket.

A senior party leader who did not want to be named told HT that while details had yet to be worked out, “it was likely that Kishor will be hired to assist Sunetra Pawar.” However, another senior leader said that people within the party had advised Parth Pawar against engaging Kishor’s services given the bitter relations between the BJP and the strategist. “He has been advised not to hire Kishor because it may not go down well with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Prashant Kishor is no longer in the BJP’s good books, and bringing him on board could upset the party’s top leadership,” the leader said, requesting anonymity. Following Monday’s meeting Parth Pawar took to X to post that the NCP had not hired Kishor as the party’s new strategist. “He (Kishor) has known us since Dada’s (Ajit Pawar’s) time. Yesterday, he was in town, so we had the pleasure of hosting him at home for lunch and some insightful conversation,” Parth clarified before describing Kishor as a close friend and someone who was “like a brother”.

In the few months since taking office after her husband’s death in a plane crash at Baramati this January, Sunetra Pawar, 62, has been working to refashion the party. In the process she has also been at odds with certain senior leaders. Last fortnight she inducted her two sons Parth and Jay into the national executive. While Parth, who has virtually emerged as her deputy, has been appointed as general secretary and in charge of coordination, younger son Jay has been appointed as national secretary and put in charge of the national disciplinary committee in addition to managing party treasury. In addition, she has appointed several young leaders to the 22-member national working committee, the party’s decision-making body. The glaring omission of designated responsibilities for senior leaders like Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare has since been characterised as a “clerical error.”

Sources say that even as she settles into her role as deputy chief minister, Sunetra Pawar is keen to strengthen her party at the grassroots level in her husband’s absence. “With both BJP and the Shiv Sena aggressively expanding their support base in the state, the NCP leadership too feels the need to strategise and strengthen their base. Sunetra Pawar also wants to reach out to the people to reaffirm her and her sons’ leadership of the party,” said the source.