Sena-NCP working on electoral alliance, Uddhav Thackeray-Ajit Pawar hold meeting

According to people familiar with the developments, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads the Sena, and deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who is a key NCP leader, held a closed-door meeting on Wednesday to discuss the future alliance plan.

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who are coalition partners in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, have begun working on a pre-poll tie-up for future elections.

The Sena and the NCP are looking at forging an electoral alliance to contest the upcoming polls together, said leaders from both the parties, who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity, as the deal is yet to be sealed. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

According to people familiar with the developments, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads the Sena, and deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who is a key NCP leader, held a closed-door meeting on Thursday to discuss the future alliance plan.

The Sena and the NCP are looking at forging an electoral alliance to contest the upcoming polls together, said leaders from both the parties, who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity, as the deal is yet to be sealed.

Initially, the two parties are planning to contest together all local elections, including zilla parishad and civic body polls, in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.

Thackeray and Pawar also held a meeting with legislators of both the parties from the Raigad district following the closed-door parley on Thursday at a colonial-era building in Dadar that is being converted into a memorial of Sena founder, the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

NCP Member of Parliament (MP) Sunil Tatkare and Sena secretary Milind Narvekar were also present in the meeting.

The two parties are keen to contest district council (zilla Parishad) and civic polls that would be held in the next couple of years, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election that is significant for the Sena.

Earlier, the three partners of the ruling alliance, the Sena, the NCP, and the Congress, had discussed electoral alliance plans.

While the Sena and the NCP have started working on that plan, the Congress is still undecided, as certain sections within the party are not in favour of contesting elections in alliance with CM Thackeray’s party.

“Both Thackeray and Pawar are of the opinion that they should finalise the alliance plans instead of waiting for the Congress to decide. If this plan clicks, then the two parties can go ahead with pre-election alliance for the next Lok Sabha and assembly elections as well,” said a key NCP functionary, requesting anonymity.

Political analyst Hemant Desai opined that the tactical move by the two parties would be significant for them.

“Their strongholds are largely different and as such their alliance can help them. However, whether their cadres will accept the plan and respond accordingly remains to be seen. This move has also raised the question over the Congress. Will they join or stay away? This could lead to mistrust between the Congress and it’s two ruling partners,” he said.

Wednesday’s development also indicates that Thackeray and Pawar are coming closer.

Pawar had tried to scuttle Thackeray’s chances to become the CM, when he shocked both the parties by taking oath as deputy CM along with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as the CM in the middle of the discussions to form a three-party alliance after 2019 assembly election results were declared.

The high-voltage political drama lasted for barely 80 hours, as most of the NCP MLAs made it clear that they would stick to party chief Sharad Pawar. Ajit then returned to the party fold and was accommodated as the deputy CM.

“That Uddhavji chose to discuss such a crucial issue with Ajitdada indicates that the two are probably working together now,” said a senior Sena leader, who didn’t wish to be identified.

The Sena had contested 2019 assembly elections in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but parted ways with the latter after the elections over the thorny issue of CM’s chair.

Later, the Sena forged an alliance with the NCP and the Congress to form the MVA in November 2019 under Thackeray’s leadership as the CM in a break from the past of a Thackeray occupying the state’s top political job.