Nagpur/Amravati: Maharashtra politics is again on the boil as rifts between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar appear to have reignited. On Monday, Sharad Pawar said that NCP is a part of Maha Vikas Aghadi, and there is a willingness to work together. His statements came after he was asked whether MVA parties will fight the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections together.
Hinting at the rift in party, he added that “desire alone is not always enough.”
Gold Rate
Tuesday 25 March 2025
Pawar’s remarks come at a moment when relations between the three MVA parties are particularly fraught following the buzz swirling around senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar possibly allying with the ruling Eknath Shinde-BJP dispensation with a section of NCP legislators. Throughout last week, speculation was rife about the BJP attempting to engineer a split within the NCP.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said that the desire to work together may not suffice to keep the MVA together for the Maharashtra elections next year. Virtually leaving no breathing room for Opposition parties in Maharashtra, veteran politician and Nationalist Congress party supremo Sharad Pawar on Monday suggested that the desire among constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi to work together may not be sufficient to keep them together.
“Desire alone is not always enough,” Pawar said, citing the willingness within the Maha Vikas Aghadi to work together. “The allotment of seats, whether there are any problems or not- all this has not been discussed yet,” he added.
“So how can I tell you about this?” he said, responding to a question on whether MVA constituents — the Shiv Sena(UBT), the Congress and the NCP will contest the Maharashtra Assembly elections scheduled next year together.
The remarks come amid a buzz around Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar possibly considering a crossover to the Bharatiya Janata Party, taking along a sizeable chunk of NCP MLAs along with him. While Ajit Pawar continues to deny all such assertions, the buzz around his switch looms large days before a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court pronounces its verdict on the disqualification plea of 16 Shiv Sena legislators who rebelled alongside incumbent Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Referring to the possibility of Ajit Pawar causing a split in the party he founded, Sharad Pawar warned of strong action against any such attempt. “Tomorrow if anyone is attempting to break the party then it is their strategy. If we have to take any stand, then we have to do it firmly,” he said, speaking to reporters on Sunday.
Pawar, however, refused to get into the details when asked to comment on the alleged attempts to woo Ajit Pawar from the NCP if the top court decides in favour of the disqualification of the 16 rebel Sena MLAs, including CM Shinde. While the disqualification of the 16 rebel MLAs would not immediately put the BJP-Shinde government in minority, the matter could snowball if the decision applies to other rebel MLAs as well.
Pawar, speaking in Amravati on April 23 evening, took a non-committal stance by stating it was not possible to say right now whether the three MVA parties would fight the 2024 polls together. Maharashtra will see both the general election as well as the State Assembly election next year.
“While there is presently an ‘Aghadi’ (alliance) and a wish between parties to work together, we still have to discuss seat-sharing and sort out other issues. We still have not done all this So, unless all that is done, how can one say whether we will fight together or not,” said the NCP chief.
