Sharad Pawar Claims Merger Was Planned for Feb. 12, Rival Faction Disagrees

 Mumbai: NCP founder Sharad Pawar on Saturday claimed that a merger of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party was scheduled to be announced on February 12, and that talks on reunification had been underway for the past four months. Mr. Pawar said the initiative for the merger had come from Ajit Pawar, and that senior leaders from both sides had held several rounds of discussions. State NCP (SP) president Shashikant Shinde also asserted that Ajit Pawar wanted both factions to reunite “under the leadership of Sharad Pawar”. However, leaders from the Ajit Pawar faction denied having any knowledge about the merger talks.

“All I know is that a consensus had been reached to begin working together between our NCP and Ajit Pawar’s NCP. The decision on the merger was to be announced on February 12. For the past four months, Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil had been discussing the merger. However, it is a tragedy that this accident occurred. Now it appears that the discussion process will come to a halt,” Sharad Pawar said.

Mr. Shinde said the proposal for reunification was Ajit Pawar’s idea. “He wanted both factions to merge under Sharad Pawar’s leadership. We held eight to ten meetings over the last three months to discuss the merger. It was decided that the announcement would be made after the Zilla Parishad elections on February 7. We had informed Pawar saheb about these discussions,” he said.

Amid these claims, a video of a meeting between Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar along with senior NCP (SP) leaders surfaced on Saturday. The meeting, reportedly held on January 17, was attended by Mr. Shinde, Jayant Patil, Harshwardhan Patil, Rohit Pawar, Rajesh Tope and Amol Kolhe. Notably, no other leader from the Ajit Pawar faction was present.

Explaining the meeting, Jayant Patil said that discussions had begun a day earlier. “On the night of January 16, a meeting was held at my residence between some key leaders of our party and Ajit Pawar. We discussed contesting the Zilla Parishad elections together. The results are due on February 7, and we had decided to announce the reunion on February 12. The next morning, we went to Baramati and informed Sharad Pawar of this decision,” he said.

However, Sunil Tatkare from the Ajit Pawar faction dismissed claims that the January 17 meeting involved merger talks. “The meeting was held solely to discuss the Zilla Parishad elections,” he said.

Other leaders from the Ajit Pawar camp also denied any knowledge of merger negotiations. MLA Sana Malik Sheikh said, “Our leaders did not inform us about any such discussions. For the past two months, leaders were occupied with elections, although talk of a merger continued in the media. Statements on this issue have been coming from the Sharad Pawar group over the past two days. If any discussions are underway, senior party leaders and the Pawar family will take a collective decision.”

Another leader, Anil Patil, said only Ajit Pawar could have clarified the issue. “If such discussions had taken place and he had consulted us, some resolution might have been possible. Now, the matter remains unanswered,” he said.

Maval MLA Sunil Shelke said the party’s future course would be decided by Sunetra Pawar. “The Nationalist Congress Party belongs to Ajit Pawar. The legislative party and the organisation are separate. Now that the reins of the legislative party have been handed over to Sunetra Pawar, she will take decisions on these matters,” he said.