NCP reunion on cards? Clamour grows in NCP after Ajit Pawar's mother 'prays for unity' at Pandharpur

Ajit Pawar had rebelled against his uncle Sharad Pawar in 2023 and later joined the Mahayuti government with several NCP MLAs.

A new year prayer by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's mother seeking to end the political feud in the family and a reunion between her son and his uncle and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has spurred calls for a reunion from both factions.

On Wednesday, Asha Pawar, mother of NCP president Ajit Pawar, who caused a split in the Nationalist Congress Party and trumped his uncle in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, visited the holy town of Pandharpur and prayed for a reunion of her son Ajit and his uncle Sharad Pawar.

"All disputes should end… Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar should reunite," she told reporters after her visit to the Vithal-Rukmini temple in Pandharpur, adding that she also prayed for "all wishes of Ajit Pawar" to come true.

Notably, this isn't the first time that calls for a reunion between the two factions have emerged less than a month after the Assembly elections left the Sharad Pawar faction facing its worst crisis ever.

This time though, the expression is more pronounced. Reacting to the wishes expressed by Ajit's mother, senior NCP leader Praful Patel said that the NCP sees Sharad Pawar as their deity.

"Sharad Pawar is our deity. We have a high degree of respect for him. If the Pawar family comes together, it will make us extremely happy. I consider myself a member of the Pawar family," he told The Indian Express.

Similar sentiments were echoed by fellow party MLA Narhari Zirwal who said he would personally Pawar Sr. to reunite with Ajit. "It felt odd to have left Sharad Pawar saheb...Many feel likewise. Now I will go to him and urge him (and Ajit) to come together. Pawar saheb has been relentlessly working for people from different sections of the society. And he continues to do so."

NCP spokesperson Amit Mitkari said that the view expressed by Asha Pawar was one harboured by every worker of the NCP on either side of the divide. He, however, warned that "some NCP(SP) leaders" like Jitendra Awhad and Sharad Pawar's grand nephew Rohit Pawar could prove to be a "hurdle" in a reunion.

"They will never like the two coming together… But Asha tai’s prayers are the prayer of every karyakarta of both NCP groups…We all feel we should come together," Mitkari said, adding that the reunion will require efforts from both sides.

Reacting to Mitkari's statement, Awhad sought to distance himself from what he termed as a family matter. "If Asha Pawar is saying that Pawars should come together, then what can I say? It is their family matter. They will have to take the call…What I think does not matter," he said.

Notably, even the BJP has expressed no reservations about the idea and ruled out any objections on the party's behalf if such a reunion were to materialise. "No, NCP ally BJP would have no problems...If the two Pawars are coming together, there is no reason for the BJP to object...They (Ajit and Sharad) have to decide," Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said.

Ajit split from the NCP in June 2023 and took 40 MLAs with him. He later aligned with the BJP and Shiv Sena and joined the Mahayuti government. In the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November, the NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar finished the last among the six major parties in the fray, winning only 10 of the 86 seats it contested.

In the 36 constituencies where the two NCP factions went head to head, Ajit Pawar's NCP bagged 29 seats, including Pawars' bastion of Baramati.