NEW DELHI: After Uddhav and Raj Thackeray joined hands, are the senior and junior Pawar also entering into an alliance ahead of the upcoming local body polls in Maharashtra? Speculation is rife after NCP (Sharad Pawar) MP Supriya Sule said that her party is in talks with Ajit Pawar and senior party leaders have spoken to each other.“Of course, we are looking at all alliances. Ajit Pawar constantly says that he has not given up that ideology. Right now, the focus is on the corporation elections. A lot of our colleagues have spoken to each other,” Sule said.“We are engaged in dialogue with them, but no decision or final offer has come,” she added.This comes as municipal corporation elections are expected to be held next month. Against this backdrop, various parties have been working on different alliance combinations. As the BJP has established its dominance in both the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) areas, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has been contemplating an alliance with the senior Pawar’s party in both these municipal corporations of Pune district.The undivided NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar, split in 2023, with the Ajit Pawar-led faction not only joining the BJP–Sena alliance in the state government but also bagging the “real NCP” status via an Election Commission’s ruling. The NCP (SP) has since been contesting against the NCP in various polls and on social issues.In the Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024, Ajit Pawar’s NCP upped its score from a mere six Assembly segment leads in the Lok Sabha results to a tally of 41 MLAs, in the process beating the senior Pawar’s nominees in 27 head-to-head clashes; the latter won seven of those contests.The 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections saw the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance win 235 seats, including 132 for the BJP, 57 for the Shiv Sena, and 41 for the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction). The Maha Vikas Aghadi was reduced to 20 seats for Shiv Sena (UBT), 16 for the Congress, and 10 for the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction).
