As NCP Goes 'Pink', Ajit Pawar Tackles Rifts with Allies, Exits & Uncle Sharad

As Ajit Pawar rebrands and decides to go solo in local & civic body polls, challenges from BJP & Sharad Pawar rise.

"For me, Sharad Pawar is God. I can never humiliate him. Maharashtra is known for its culture. We have a culture of respect here. If anybody is trying to indicate otherwise, it is a propaganda," said Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and deputy CM Ajit Pawar while addressing a gathering of party functionaries in Pune's Pimpri on 21 July.

On the same day, he made another significantly political announcement in Pune: "The NCP will contest elections to civic and local bodies on its own without the support of the Mahayuti parties."

The announcement came just days after some 25 office-bearers and former corporators of his party from Pimpri-Chinchwad, his strongest political bastion for over two decades, jumped ship to Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar (NCPSP).

Among those who quit were some of his staunch loyalists, including Pimpri-Chinchwad chief Ajit Gavhne, who said he was "unconfortable with the party's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party."

From these two key statements, anybody who can do political 2+2 will repeat a few questions being asked since the NCP's rout in Lok Sabha elections — Is Ajit Pawar warming up to uncle Sharad? Is all not well between the Mahayuti allies? While speculations and analyses to such questions are being widely reported, events of the past one week signify that the answers are more complicated than they look.

Why Pimpri-Chinchwad Blow is Important 

Ever since the formation of the party by Sharad Pawar in 1999, Pimpri-Chinchwad has been the bastion of the NCP, and more so of Ajit Pawar.

A united NCP had undisputed influence on the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation for close to two decades, till it received a big jolt from the BJP in 2017. In the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Municipal Corporation elections held in 2017, the NCP was reduced to 35/122 seats from the 84 it had won in the previous elections, while the BJP emerged to be the single largest party with 78 seats.

The NCP, at the time, blamed the defeat on the BJP luring its leaders ahed of the polls and giving them tickets. No elections to PCMC have been held since.

The setback of the NCP was credited to BJP MLAs Mahesh Landge and late Laxman Jagtap, both of whom were with the NCP till 2014. While Jagtap passed away in January 2023, Landge is now the president of Pimpri Chnichwad BJP. Both leaders were considered to be close trusted confidates of Ajit Pawar till 2014.

Following their departure, the reins of Pimpri Chinchwad NCP were given to Ajit Gavhane, who swore his loyalty to Ajit Pawar after the party split last year. "Since 2017, the BJP has been ruling PCMC. The kind of work that has happened since is riddled with corruption and the sitting MLA (Landge) is responsible for that," Gavhane told the media in his first interaction after resigning from the party.

However, the recent exodus of key leaders not only exposes cracks within the party, but also with the local leaders of Mahayuti parties on the ground.

Many leaders who left the party cited discomfort with having to work and campaign for BJP leaders.

"Politics at the local level is very different than what leaders make it out to be in the media. For years, leaders of Pune NCP have fought against the ideology and corruption by the BJP in the local bodies. We tried to make things work because of our allegience to Ajit dada. We mean no disrespect to him. But eventually, we are the ones who have to face the voters in our wards," a former corporator who moved to NCPSP told The Quint on the condition of anonymity.

Sharad Pawar Carefully Strategising 'Entries'

Sharad Pawar, meanwhile, is fully invested in prepartions for the upcoming Assembly elections, sources say.

With outreach to irked leaders of Mahayuti parties, backdoor meetings with leaders of Ajit Pawar's NCP, and divising street sharing strategies for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the NCP supremo is keen on keeping ip the momentum boost going after the Lok Sabha elections, in which his party won 8 of the 10 seats it contested in Maharashtra.

Sharad Pawar, sources say, is carefully strategising the induction of leaders into the party fold while scores of 'upset leaders' from other party having reportedly approached him to be induucted, including those from Ajit's NCP.

Along with senior leaders of Pimpri Chinchwad NCP, BJP leader and former cabinet minister Madhavrao Kinhalkar also rejoined Sharad Pawar last week. He had quit the NCP in 2014. Former BJP MLA Sudhkar Bhalerao from Latur also joined the NCPSP earlier in July.

Whie many still hope that the two NCPs should reunite, sources within the NCPSP say it is unlikely before the Assemby elections.

Asked in a press conference last week about the possibility of Ajit Pawar returning to the fold, he said: "Elections come and go but the family remains intact. Everybody is a part of the family, but whether he (Ajit Pawar) is to be made a part of the NCPSP will not be my individual decision. I will consult all my colleagues who stood firmly with me during tough times."

The speculations of reconciliation heated up again after recent meetings of Sharad Pawar with some senior leaders of Ajit Pawar's NCP, including Chhagan Bhujbal last week and Atul Benke on Saturday.

"Looking at the political developments in Maharashtra, one cannot confidently say who will go where and who will form an alliance with whom. We are happy if Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar come together. But some ambitious leaders don't want that to happen," NCP MLA from Maval, Sunil Shelke told the media on Saturday.

Ajit Pawar Goes 'Pink', Keeps Up the Fight, For Now

The alleged rift between the BJP and the NCP took another turn last week after a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sevak (RSS) mouthpiece Vivek criticised the BJP for 'losing support' after joining hands with the NCP, a second such criticism from an RSS weekly after a similar editorial in Organiser last month.

While many BJP leaders rallied behind senior leaders during Lok Sabha elections who gave a call for 'Mahayuti dharma' and worked for NCP candidates in four seats, much more resistance from local BJP units and local leaders is emerging in the run up to seat sharing talks.

From the recent Lok Sabha election results, it is clear that the vote transfer between the BJP and the NCP was minimal, except for the Raigad seat where NCP Maharashtra chief Sunil Tatkare registered a massive victory.

But that too, experts say, was more due to Tatkare's own legacy than any possible BJP-NCP bonhmie.

Recently, the Pune unit of the BJP, a region where the NCP has commanded influence for more than two decades, raised a demand to senior leaders for the BJP to contest all six Assembly seats.

Ajit Pawar, meanwhile, has maintained that the NCP will contest the Assembly elections in alliance with the Mahayuti parties.

In a meeting held with Pune NCP leaders on Sunday in Kasba, Ajit Pawar declared that while the Assembly elections will be contested in alliance, the NCP will contest elections to civic and local bodies separately in a bid to strengthen local leadership.

Since the Lok Sabha election results, Ajit Pawar has aggressively pitched for an image makeover of the party, for which the party has hired renowned strategy firm 'Design Box'.

In a latest 'brand makeover', the colour pink has been chosen as the signature colour of the party and is being dominantly seen in decorations, hoardings, and flexes of party events. Ajit Pawar himself has donned a pink bandhgala jackets on white kurta at several events over the past one week.

Most party leaders vehemently credited Ajit Pawar for the 'Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin Yojana', a direct cash transfer scheme that has struck a chord with women voters of the state, after he pitched it in his first Budget for Mahayuti.

While he has stationed himsef in Pune for the past one week for damage control and morale building of the local party units, the recent developments and moves made by the party hint that him returning to Sharad Pawar or contesting solo are weak possibilities for now.

But as the deputy chief minsiter celebrates his 65th birthday today, the tasks of tackling the saffron allies, uncle Sharad's strategies, and exodus from within his own party become more uphill than before.