After Bankipur bypoll win, PK stirs Mumbai waters, meets top NCP leaders

Kishor arrived on a chartered flight from Delhi along with Parth. Sunetra had cleared her official schedule for Thursday, and the meeting with the JSP chief at the Pawar residence was her only known engagement. No other senior NCP leader was present.

Sunetra, who has been trying to establish her hold over the NCP after the death of husband and veteran Ajit Pawar, and is seen as vulnerable to ally BJP’s moves, could do with a shrewd political head by her side. And Kishor, who built his reputation as a political strategist, offers that.

As per sources, Kishor’s inputs would be valuable in helping the NCP rebuild the party organisation and redefine its electoral strategy. It is Parth who is believed to have reached out to the JSP leader, who has always had a good relationship with the Pawars.

A source close to the family said one line of thinking is that the state NCP leadership be changed and the organisation “be headed by someone who is not an elected representative”. The national faces also came in for a review, sources said.

Incidentally, over the past two days, the NCP has announced a series of appointments to its women, youth, student and young women’s wings, filling them with leaders seen as close to Parth.

The NCP’s relationship with the BJP has been under a strain, with the senior partner seen as dabbling with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) to keep Sunetra and Parth on tenterhooks. The NCP could go it alone in the coming zilla parishad panchayat elections, instead of as part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, with one topic of discussion at Thursday’s meeting reportedly being “testing the NCP’s political strength on its own, under the leadership of Sunetra”.

NCP sources said the Congress’s recent description of Sunetra as “goongi gudiya (mute doll)” also came up for discussion. According to sources, Kishor said the Deputy CM had done the right thing in avoiding a public confrontation, effectively silencing the criticism.

Sources familiar with the discussions said Kishor could take on a larger role in the coming days with the NCP, as the local body elections draw nearer.

This was Kishor’s third meeting with the family in Mumbai in recent months, and after an earlier one, he had told The Indian Express that he was no longer in the business of election consultancy but focused on his own political role.

However, Thursday’s meeting was the most conspicuous given Kishor’s recent defeat of the BJP from the seat vacated by its party president, and given the fluid state of the NCP’s ties with its ally.

The NCP worked with political strategist Naresh Arora in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, with the engagement continuing, though in a diminished role, till March this year.

Kishor and the Pawars did not respond to messages and calls.