Maharashtra Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar was quoted by NDTV on Tuesday as saying that discussions regarding a merger between the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Congress are in progress.
The former state leader of opposition told the station, “Those who adhere to the secular ideals of the Congress and Sharad Pawar are always welcome in our party.”
According to unnamed sources cited by NDTV, the negotiations are nearing their conclusion and moving forward well.
After leaving the Congress in 1999 due to his disapproval of Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, Sharad Pawar created the Nationalist Congress Party. But in October 1999, the NCP joined up with the Congress to establish a government in Maharashtra.
Up to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combination won the Assembly election in 2014, the Congress and NCP controlled the state.
When Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Sharad Pawar, and a number of party MLAs joined Maharashtra’s Mahayuti coalition government in 2023, which was made up of the BJP and the Shiv Sena section led by Eknath Shinde, the NCP divided into two parts.
The Election Commission declared in February 2024 that Ajit Pawar’s group was the true NCP and gave it the “clock” emblem.
On January 28, while trying to land, a small plane crashed close to an airfield in Baramati town, killing Ajit Pawar.
A wave of defections from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Trinamool Congress to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coincides with the reported talks between the Congress and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).the “clock” emblem.