Jayant Patil’s Back-To-Back Meetings Fuel Rumours Of NCP (SP) Realignment With NDA

Mumbai: A few days after meeting Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, senior NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil on Friday met Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde amid speculations about the possible realignment of the Sharad Pawar-led party with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Back-to-back meetings with BJP and Shiv Sena leaders have fueled political debate over whether the NCP (SP) is exploring closer ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). There are also reports that Jayant Patil is likely to become the state finance minister after the NCP (SP) joins hands with the BJP. However, the party denied reports that there might be an imminent change in its political stance.

Jayant Patil claimed that after meeting Shinde, he met the deputy chief minister to intervene in the disqualification of Urun-Islampur Municipal Council chairman Anandrao Malgunde and councilor Sunil Malgunde over an alleged rape case.

In his statement, Patil said that Malgunde and his brother Sunil Malgunde, who was elected as the chairman of the municipal council with 7,200 votes and initiated various development works in the town, were dismissed from their respective positions due to an old rape case.

Patil urged Shinde, who also holds the Urban Development portfolio, to reconsider his decision to disqualify the two, adding that the action deprives the people of Urun-Islampur of the services of their elected representatives.

However, according to political sources, the Sharad Pawar-led party is planning to enter the NDA and Patil has been given the task of facilitating the move. Patil’s recent meetings with BJP general secretary Vinod Tawade, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde have fueled speculation that the realignment is gaining momentum.