Wonder if NCPs will merge and we will have to work with them: Chandrakant Patil

Despite being together in the ruling Mahayuti alliance at the state level, the BJP, Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena are contesting the Pune Municipal Corporation elections separately. Ajit Pawar’s NCP has formed an alliance with Sharad Pawar’s NCP while alliance talks between the BJP and and the Shiv Sena for the PMC polls failed.

Ajit Pawar has also repeatedly criticised BJP leaders in the last few days, drawing ire from Patil. Explaining why Mahayuti is not contesting elections together in many regions, Patil said, “The idea was that we would fight separately for convenience. It was decided from the beginning that we would not comment on each other. Eknath Shinde did not speak against us, and we did not speak against him either. Ajit Pawar also followed this until about eight days ago. I don’t know why he abandoned this later. Then, we decided that we would also have to speak up, otherwise people would say that there is something wrong with us, so we responded.”

“Maharashtra’s politics used to revolve around Sharad Pawar, but Devendra Fadnavis has shown such capability that it now revolves around him. He must have something in mind,” added Patil.