After meeting Amit Shah, NCP scotches speculations on joining hands with Sharad Pawar’s party

Speculations have been rife for quite sometime that both NCP factions might contest the civic elections together. Adding grist to rumour mills was the meeting Tatkare and NCP leader Praful Patel had with Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday. The meeting comes a day after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP will have an alliance with the Shiv Sena at most places for the civic elections. He, however, said in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the BJP will take on the NCP.

Incidentally, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule also met Shah on Tuesday along with some MPs, raising eyebrows in political circles. However, Sule said she met Shah in connection with issues affecting Maharashtra. “During our meeting with Shah, we discussed the issue of the murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh and demanded early justice for his family. Besides, we also discussed the issue of excess rain which hit the farmers hard. We demanded that Maharashtra should get adequate financial help from the National Disaster Fund,” Sule said.

Sule said during the recent local body elections, widespread violence was reported and huge amount of cash was recovered. “I told the Union Home Minister that for a robust democracy, such a scenario was not appropriate and action should be taken,” she said.

However, Sule was also the talking point in Pimpri-Chinchwad on Tuesday after NCP leader Nana Kate said she had called him up and discussed the possibility of an alliance. “A few days back, Sule had called me up and discussed the possibility of an alliance between the two NCP factions. She said local leadership of both the parties should hold discussions about joining hands so that our votes do not get split,” Kate claimed, adding that so far there is no movement on this front from both the sides.

Meanwhile, NCP national president Ajit Pawar on Tuesday conducted interviews of hundreds of aspirants at Baramati guest house. NCP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Yogesh said, “I think interviews of more than 600 aspirants were conducted on Tuesday by our president. Most of the aspirants were called in groups and were asked personal details and what work they have done for the party. Today’s interviews were only about the new ones and not the sitting corporators or former corporators. The interviews started as early 7 in the morning and continued till late in the evening,” he said.

NCP said no candidates were finalised during today’s interviews. “The candidates who came for interviews answered a number of questions they were asked with confidence. Our party president will decide on who is to be selected. It will be announced later after all the interviews have been conducted,” Kate said.

Meanwhile, the NCP on Tuesday inducted as many as five former corporators, three from its own alliance partner in the state, the BJP. “Today, several political workers and leaders joined our party. Among them were at least five corporators. Three of them are from BJP. Prominent among them is Seema Sawale, who is the former PCMC standing committee chairperson. One each from Shiv Sena (UBT) and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena have also joined us. There are many more waiting to join us,” she said.

Sawale said, “Though she has shifted from NCP to BJP, she will remain part of the Mahayuti. NCP is in full swing in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Our party is geared up to storm back to power in PCMC.” Besides Sawale, Ashwini Jadhav, Priyanka Barse, Pramod Kute and Sachin Bhosale.

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