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

Mumbai: NCP founder Sharad Pawar on Saturday claimed that the merger of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party was planned to be announced on February 12 and talks on the reunion have been going on for the last four months. Mr. Pawar said the merger initiative came from Ajit Pawar and senior leaders of both sides held several rounds of talks. State NCP (SP) chief Shashikant Shinde also claimed that Ajit Pawar wanted both groups to reunite “under the leadership of Sharad Pawar”. However, leaders of the Ajit Pawar group denied having any knowledge of the merger talks.

Sharad Pawar said, “All I know is that a consensus has been reached between our NCP and Ajit Pawar’s NCP to start working together. The merger decision was to be announced on February 12. Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil were discussing the merger for the last four months. But it is a tragedy that this accident has happened. Now the discussion process seems to come to a halt.”

Mr. Shinde said the reunion proposal was Ajit Pawar’s idea. “He wanted both groups to merge under Sharad Pawar’s leadership. We had eight to ten meetings in 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 allegations, a video of Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar’s meeting with senior NCP (SP) leaders surfaced on Saturday. Mr. Shinde, Jayant Patil, Harshwardhan Patil, Rohit Pawar, Rajesh Tope and Amol Kolhe attended the meeting, which was reportedly held on January 17. It was notable that no other leader from the Ajit Pawar group was there.

Describing the meeting, Jayant Patil said that the talks started a day before. “On the night of January 16, a meeting was held between some key leaders of our party and Ajit Pawar at my house. We discussed participating in the Zilla Parishad elections together. The results will be declared 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 about this decision,” he said.

However, Sunil Tatkare of the Ajit Pawar group rejected allegations that the January 17 meeting included merger talks. “The meeting was held only to discuss the Zilla Parishad elections,” he said.

Other leaders from Ajit Pawar’s wing also denied any knowledge of the merger talks. MLA Sana Malik Sheikh said, “Our leaders did not inform us about such discussions. Even though merger rumors continued in the media, leaders were busy with elections for the last two months. Statements regarding this issue have been coming from the Sharad Pawar group for the last two days. If any discussions are continuing, senior party leaders and Pawar family will take a joint decision.”

Another leader Anil Patil said that only Ajit Pawar can clarify the issue. “If such talks had been held and we had been consulted, perhaps a solution would have been possible. At the moment, the issue remains unanswered,” he said.

Maval MLA Sunil Shelke said the future course of the party will be determined by Sunetra Pawar. “The Nationalist Congress Party belongs to Ajit Pawar. The legislative party and the organization are separate. Since the reins of the legislative party have now been handed over to Sunetra Pawar, she will take decisions on these matters,” he said.